JERSEY SHORE – Crowds gathered on the beach at Point Pleasant, Seaside Heights, and Long Beach Island on Friday, May 15, for the 4th annual Unlocking The Ocean event, which is an event hosted a week before Memorial Day to signify that the beach towns, which are normally quiet for most of the year, are now open for business.
The event itself was only hosted in one spot for the previous three years, but this year two more locations were added so that all the different regions of Ocean County were included. Those running the events made the trek throughout almost all of Ocean County’s coastline, as they held the event in Point Pleasant at 9 a.m., before making their stops at Seaside Heights and Long Beach Island at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.
The event was put on by the Ocean County Business Development and Tourism office, with the goal of promoting tourism in the county and helping out businesses that are unique to the shore towns.
Representatives of Jenkinson’s Boardwalk showed up to support the event during its first stop at Point Pleasant. Various costumed characters, including Fincent the Shark and Perky the Penguin, both of whom are mascots for the boardwalk, showed up to provide some entertainment to the crowd of about 25 who attended the event.
On top of that, a South African penguin from the boardwalk’s aquarium made an appearance as well. Dassen, a penguin from the aquarium’s adopt-a-penguin program, made an appearance to help promote the aquarium and the program.
In addition to Jenkinson’s, representatives of the Jersey Shore BlueClaws also attended the event. The BlueClaws have called Ocean County home for over 25 years now and are the only professional sports team to represent Ocean County and the Jersey Shore as a whole. The BlueClaws brought their mascot Buster with them, with all three mascots having a bit of a dance off with music playing before the official festivities began.
Once the official festivities began, Point Pleasant Mayor Doug Vitale was given a giant key, which he stuck in the sand and turned slowly to the side to signify that the beach was now unlocked. The event also provided a big photo opportunity for the Ocean County Business Development and Tourism office to help promote their efforts to get people down the shore.
Roxy Conniff was in charge of setting up all three of the events on behalf of the Ocean County Business Development and Tourism office. After praising several local officials for how easy they have been to work with in setting this up, she talked about how events like this are meant to be for the community, especially as it heads into the most important time of the year, with Memorial Day on the way.
“It’s just getting everyone in the community together and showing everybody that this is a family, and that this is a community effort.”
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