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HIGHLANDS — Temperatures rose quickly for Bayshore residents Saturday as they left Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. They were bundled up in new jackets, feeling some of the love and support they’ve needed for months.
Sea Bright’s Sea Bright Rising and Highlands’ Hope for Highlands groups worked with UNIQLO, a global Japanese retail holding company, to hand out hundreds of new winter coats to Sandy-affected residents from Highlands, Sea Bright, Union Beach, Keansburg and Belford.
Distribution took place in the parking lot of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church at 141 Miller St. from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Rosemary Ryan, vice chairwoman of Hope for Highlands, said residents were happy to get new coats, many lining up an hour before the event kicked off.
“I told them (the volunteers), ‘You’re here to warm the people with coats. It warms my heart,’ ” Ryan said. “It’s showing the (people) of the Bayshore area that people care about them outside their town.”
Saturday’s distribution had 1,000 jackets for men and women, and 10,000 HEATTECH items for men, women and children, said UNIQLO spokesman Alex Spritzer. There were additional children’s jackets available from outside donations. HEATTECH items are heat-generating innerwear.
“This is wonderful, because this is exposing people that might never be exposed to this product, and it’s a great product,” Ryan said.
Alicia Going, 47, of Highlands and her three children were among hundreds receiving the donated jackets. The family had lost their home because of Sandy and was grateful to have new winter coats.
“Considering we lost everything and all our clothes, and insurance isn’t coming through right away ... you’re waiting and waiting,” Going said. “You don’t realize the littlest things that you take for granted that you lost.”
Highlands was the sixth stop in UNIQLO’s United in Warmth 10-week volunteer and donation program.
While at their Newark distribution, UNIQLO met with Mary Pat Christie, Gov. Chris Christie’s wife, who referred them to Chris Wood, co-founder of Sea Bright Rising. This led to collaboratively planning the Highlands event, Spritzer explained.
“We really wanted to reach the Shore towns,” Spritzer said.
Ryan said the event was publicized with fliers in the Bayshore area, as well as online.
“We feel like the forgotten stepchild. We feel like we’re kind of lost, and this might bring some attention to our town,” she said. “So to have this company come here, even though it’s serving the whole Bayshore area, it’s great.”
Chris Hoff, Office of Emergency Management liaison officer for Keansburg, was at the event helping residents.
“I think it’s awesome. The whole Bayshore area has been (affected by) that terrible name ‘Sandy,’ ” he said. “Some people from Keansburg are here, some people from Middletown and Sea Bright, so it’s a bit of a central point.”
Leftover jackets and HEATTECH items would be left in Highlands and also picked up by other Bayshore towns to distribute to residents in need.
Both Sea Bright Rising and Hope for Highlands are committees that work to rebuild the boroughs after Sandy’s devastation.
Gina Columbus: 732-308-7752; [email protected]