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this is "my home town"
HIGHLANDS - After weeks of stress and struggle following Hurricane Sandy, Highlands residents will gather together tomorrow afternoon for some serious fun at a free benefit concert. The concert, starring many well-known Jersey Shore musicians, will raise funds and awareness to help rebuild their town.
The Hope for Highlands benefit concert will take place Sunday, November 25, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Seastreak Ferry terminal, 325 Shore Drive in Highlands. Although the concert itself is free, donations will be accepted for the “Hope for Highlands” fund set up by Mayor Frank Nolan and the non-profit Highlands Business Partnership organization.
The artistic lineup for the show will be highly familiar with those who know the famous Jersey Shore bar band scene. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, considered one of the founders of the Jersey Shore sound, will be on hand. The Rebuild the Jersey Shore band will also hit the Highlands stage, featuring local musical legends such as Bobby Bandiera, Lisa Bouchelle, Lisa Lowell, Tommy LaBella and Michael Mancini, as well as many others.
Rick Korn, a local resident and longtime concert producer who helped organize Sunday’s event, explained why music matters so much now, especially in his adopted hometown of Highlands.
“Highlands was completely devastated, and it’s a blue-collar, working-class fishing village that doesn’t always get the attention that places like Sea Bright and Belmar get,” said Korn, who produced the 9/11 benefits concerts at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank that featured Jersey musical icons Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. “The idea of this concert is that we’ll put on a show, but we want the money to go to rebuild the business community and put people back to work. We also want to donate to people here who are now homeless and who maybe don’t have family or other resources to weather the storm, so to speak. People need a break, and music is a healer.”
More than 1200 of the 1500 homes in downtown Highlands and nearly all of its downtown businesses were severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Approximately 40 percent of the donations collected at the benefit concert will go towards rebuilding the borough’s businesses, according to Nolan, and the remaining 60 percent will go directly to Highlands residents dealing with the storm’s aftermath.
“We’ve got about 500 local jobs from those business that were damaged that are just getting going again,” said Nolan, 43, who became mayor for the town’s nearly 5,400 residents in 2010. “We’re looking at going house-to-house – one guy doesn’t have homeowners' insurance, another doesn’t have flood insurance. Maybe somebody needs a refrigerator or a dishwasher. It’s a case-by-case basis. The average household income in the Highlands downtown area is about $50,000 a year. Most of those folks don’t have $10,000 lying around to bridge them between what they’ll get from FEMA and insurance, if they have it. That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing what we’re doing with the concert.”
“This benefit concert is to raise money and awareness for exactly what happened to our downtown,” Carla Cefalo-Braswell, the Highlands Business Partnership president, said. “There are a lot of people who love Highlands, and there is so much love and pride in the community. I started summering in Highlands as a little girl, and there are so many people like myself who will work really hard and will do whatever we can, as fast as we can, to rebuild it. It’s all part of restoring the store.”
Chefs and bartenders from Highlands’ Bay Avenue and waterfront restaurants and bars will make sure that food and beverages will be readily available.
“This concert is the beginning of our page-turning,” added Nolan. “We’ve got a lot of the cleanup work done now, and there is a realization that people outside of town do care. There have been armies of people coming in to help us out. We know we’re not in this alone. We’ll be able to rebuild, and we’ll be better than ever. We’ll be back.”
For more information about the event, go to the More Monmouth Musings blog.
To donate to the Highlands relief effort, go to www.highlandsnj.com and click on “Hope for Highlands.” All donations are tax deductible.
The Hope for Highlands benefit concert will take place Sunday, November 25, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Seastreak Ferry terminal, 325 Shore Drive in Highlands. Although the concert itself is free, donations will be accepted for the “Hope for Highlands” fund set up by Mayor Frank Nolan and the non-profit Highlands Business Partnership organization.
The artistic lineup for the show will be highly familiar with those who know the famous Jersey Shore bar band scene. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, considered one of the founders of the Jersey Shore sound, will be on hand. The Rebuild the Jersey Shore band will also hit the Highlands stage, featuring local musical legends such as Bobby Bandiera, Lisa Bouchelle, Lisa Lowell, Tommy LaBella and Michael Mancini, as well as many others.
Rick Korn, a local resident and longtime concert producer who helped organize Sunday’s event, explained why music matters so much now, especially in his adopted hometown of Highlands.
“Highlands was completely devastated, and it’s a blue-collar, working-class fishing village that doesn’t always get the attention that places like Sea Bright and Belmar get,” said Korn, who produced the 9/11 benefits concerts at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank that featured Jersey musical icons Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. “The idea of this concert is that we’ll put on a show, but we want the money to go to rebuild the business community and put people back to work. We also want to donate to people here who are now homeless and who maybe don’t have family or other resources to weather the storm, so to speak. People need a break, and music is a healer.”
More than 1200 of the 1500 homes in downtown Highlands and nearly all of its downtown businesses were severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Approximately 40 percent of the donations collected at the benefit concert will go towards rebuilding the borough’s businesses, according to Nolan, and the remaining 60 percent will go directly to Highlands residents dealing with the storm’s aftermath.
“We’ve got about 500 local jobs from those business that were damaged that are just getting going again,” said Nolan, 43, who became mayor for the town’s nearly 5,400 residents in 2010. “We’re looking at going house-to-house – one guy doesn’t have homeowners' insurance, another doesn’t have flood insurance. Maybe somebody needs a refrigerator or a dishwasher. It’s a case-by-case basis. The average household income in the Highlands downtown area is about $50,000 a year. Most of those folks don’t have $10,000 lying around to bridge them between what they’ll get from FEMA and insurance, if they have it. That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing what we’re doing with the concert.”
“This benefit concert is to raise money and awareness for exactly what happened to our downtown,” Carla Cefalo-Braswell, the Highlands Business Partnership president, said. “There are a lot of people who love Highlands, and there is so much love and pride in the community. I started summering in Highlands as a little girl, and there are so many people like myself who will work really hard and will do whatever we can, as fast as we can, to rebuild it. It’s all part of restoring the store.”
Chefs and bartenders from Highlands’ Bay Avenue and waterfront restaurants and bars will make sure that food and beverages will be readily available.
“This concert is the beginning of our page-turning,” added Nolan. “We’ve got a lot of the cleanup work done now, and there is a realization that people outside of town do care. There have been armies of people coming in to help us out. We know we’re not in this alone. We’ll be able to rebuild, and we’ll be better than ever. We’ll be back.”
For more information about the event, go to the More Monmouth Musings blog.
To donate to the Highlands relief effort, go to www.highlandsnj.com and click on “Hope for Highlands.” All donations are tax deductible.
thanx for posting this, I guess I'm one of the ones. I had so much to do, however I was able to sit at the back on the hill and listen to the the music, rumor was that Bruce Springsteen would make an appearance, I did not hear him however heard some great SSJ music!