Point Beach First Aid Needs Help to Fix or Replace Sunken Boat

The Point Pleasant Beach First Aid Squad needs the community's help to repair or replace its sunken rescue and dive boat, the only rescue boat in the region.

The boat sank during the most recent nor'easter that battered the Jersey Shore and the insurance claim will fall very short of actual repair or replacement cost, according to a prepared statement from the squad.

The 24 foot Stieger Craft, designed for dive, rescue, recovery and EMS water response, sunk while at a squad member's dock on Woodland Ave, Point Beach, just a few blocks from the squad headquarters on Laurel Avenue, between Bay Avenue and Route 35 South.

The all volunteer emergency squad, which serves Point Pleasant Beach, Bay Head and Mantoloking, operates solely on donations and has to decide whether they can reactivate the rescue boat, which is the only EMS/dive rescue boat in southern Monmouth and northern Ocean County. The New Jersey State Police Marine Division had cut back on their service hours in the area as of last year.

The squad responds to numerous calls year in and year out, but was even more active during and after Sandy, when volunteers rescued people from flood waters, treated them, sheltered and fed them at the squad headquarters and transported them to alternative housing locations, shelters and hospitals.

If you would like to help them repair or replace their boat, tax deductible donations can be sent to:

Point Pleasant Beach First Aid
611 Laurel Ave
Point Pleasant Beach, NJ 08742

Please note on check that the donation is for boat repair.