OCEAN COUNTY – The Jones Road fire garnered national attention. Firefighting companies and relief agencies came from all over. For one responder, it was much closer to home.
Four years ago Mark Haug created the nonprofit Hold On, I’m Coming. He loads a trailer with supplies and drives to areas that have been hit hard by a natural disaster. He’s been to Florida, Vermont, and several states in between to serve people in need. This time, it was just a quick trip south.
Haug said he went down to Waretown the morning of April 23. The Red Cross was already on scene and didn’t want him at the staging area, which worked out, because he was able to find displaced residents who also didn’t get to the staging area.
He headquartered at the ShopRite in Waretown, and saw about 150-200 people who came to him for help. He offered toiletries, drinks, coffee, and ice. There were snacks and he went through about 100 hot dogs. Some people just came to charge their phones at his station; he provides different types of cords if people need them.
Firefighters battle the Jones Road Wildfire. (Photo courtesy New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection)
It’s part of paying it back. Haug’s Ocean Gate home was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy. That event formed the inspiration to do this now. Well, not exactly. The disaster was one part of it. The truly inspiring part was how everyone came together after Sandy to help each other. Strangers lifted each other up, and that’s what he wants to do now.
His trailer is loaded up so he can just go as soon as possible. He stays until long-term relief efforts get situated. He’ll provide immediate needs and then they’ll provide next level care.
Not everyone who stopped by needed help. Some came to donate. Those people he sent on to the staging area since he knew they’d be on site longer.
“I had so many people come to volunteer,” he said. “It feels good to see so many other people looking to help.”
Snacks and other supplies are in the trailer to give out to those in need. (Photo courtesy Mark Haug)
He stayed in Waretown for about eight hours, he said. Once power got restored to the area, fewer and fewer people needed help.
Fortunately, the fire took place over spring break, as Haug is a teacher in the Central Regional School District. He said his superintendent is very supportive of his work, and when he returns from a mission, he gives a lesson to students about it. He also coaches girls track, and he learned later that the team had wanted to come and help.
It was amazing to see the amount of volunteers on the ground.
“Thank you to all the people who came out,” he said. “It was really a heartwarming knowing there are so many people who want to help.”
Some people came to donate money to Hold On, I’m Coming after seeing him in news reports.
“I survive on donations. I can only do so much financially,” he said. But with the donations that have come in from people spreading the word of his exploits, his entire next trip is funded.
For more information, or ways to make donations, visit HoldOnImComing.com.
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