Volunteers Honored by Governor for Hurricane Irene Effort

AVALON – Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi was accompanied by members of Avalon’s Borough Council and volunteers for a special recognition ceremony held at the War Memorial in Trenton on Wed., Oct. 26. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie hosted an event to honor elected officials, appointed officials, and volunteers from around the state for their evacuation, sheltering, and recovery efforts following Hurricane Irene in August, 2011.
“I personally thanked the Governor for honoring Avalon with an invitation to this program”, Pagliughi said. “I am very happy that many of our volunteers who assembled and implemented Avalon’s shelter during the storm event had the opportunity to meet the Governor and accept congratulations for a job well done”.
Avalon Council members Charles Covington and Joseph Tipping were among the many volunteers who assisted around the clock at the Avalon-designed shelter in Cumberland County. They joined other volunteers to provide shelter, bedding, food, and other comforts during the mandatory evacuation necessitated by Hurricane Irene.
“I applaud Governor Christie for his leadership during a very difficult storm event that impacted various parts of the State in different ways”, Pagliughi said. “His leadership provided the opportunity for the Borough of Avalon to provide protection and comfort for those in need in our community. The volunteers did a tremendous job at the shelter, and we are deeply grateful for their unselfishness and dedication to community”.
Here is a partial transcript of the comments made by Governor Christie during his address to volunteers:
“In a time of crisis your efforts to get people to be safe both ahead of, during, and after the storm, the cleanup, recovery, and its aftermath, rebuilt and saved lives. No question in my mind. And so today we want to take the time to say thank you. You know, when we were going through this it was an interesting experience for my family because we actually happened to be on vacation that week at the Jersey Shore. And after I delivered my line I then went back to Island Beach State Park to see my family and I saw my eleven-year-old son Patrick first when I pulled in the driveway of the house and I got out of the car and he said Dad I can’t say the word you said but we’re off the beach. We packed up that night and left and got our family back home and went back to the Regional Operations Center right here in Mercer County and what struck me the entire time was that the efforts that all of you were doing, all of us were getting credit for. We organized and planned and hopefully as well as we possibly could executed those plans. But those plans were meaningless without all of you.
And so I wanted to have this celebration today to celebrate all that you have accomplished and achieved through your simple acts of kindness and selflessness. And so when we reached out to your towns, to your counties, to your organizations, and asked you to come down here today for this celebration it was because the Lieutenant Governor and I wanted to be able to look all of you in the eye and say thank you personally, for not only how well you served your neighbors and your friends and many people I am sure you had never met before, but also to say thank you for how great you made our state look to America.”