Empty the Pantry: Stone Harbor Yacht Club Members Donating Food & Money To Needy
Pat Mahoney and Cathy Hammer with donations from pickleball community.
Here’s a holiday-season snowball that never grows too large: the momentum of generosity.
The Yacht Club of Stone Harbor, which has extensively grown its charity realm with help from the Chamber of Commerce, real estate agencies and its own members over the last couple of years, launches a final 2020 donation drive.
It’s an unofficial yet significant push for a program titled “Empty the Pantry.” Pat Allex, a member of the Yacht Club’s community outreach committee, sounds “last call” to members heading south for the winter.
As they prepare to leave, members can bring food items or money to the Yacht Club. The items will then be distributed to local food banks and other charities. In recent years, the Yacht Club has also collected unused pet food and bedding materials, which are donated to the Cape May County Animal Shelter.
“Given the craziness of the pandemic, there are people in line for food who never in their life thought they would be there,” Allex says. “This has impacted people on many levels. So many people are losing their jobs. So many people are suffering.
“Many residents will be leaving in the next few weeks, but the need for food donations will still be with us and, in all likelihood, will only increase. Highlighting the project and focusing on the ongoing need would be a great help to those who so desperately need our assistance.”
Allex considered the message important enough to deliver from her winter home in Florida. The idea of a member launching an information campaign from there underscores the club’s growth in this area.
The organization has significant community reach with 500 families, a substantial portion of the borough’s population. Its charitable measures are powerful, especially when targeted.
That’s why Allex urged one final holiday push.
Allex knows the impact of Yacht Club member donations. Her pickleball-playing friends turned an informal idea into a philanthropic home run in late summer and early fall. A group of four to 100 players, who had been linked on a Team Reach app, displayed the power of being connected.
On three Saturdays, the group brought nonperishable food items and money to the courts. Allex and committee member Cathy Hammer then distributed the contributions to the Branches Outreach Center in Rio Grande and the Lazarus House Ministries in Wildwood. They filled a large SUV from “stem to stern” each time. Beyond that, the players donated $3,000.
“What everybody did was wonderful,” Allex says. “We reached out to the players and they brought everything. Canned goods. Cereal. Pasta. Tomato sauce. Just about everything you could imagine. The snacks had to be nonperishable. Somebody even donated a bushel of corn.
“On top of that, we raised the money. When we brought all this to people, they were so thankful. You’d have thought we had given them a million dollars or something. We are so happy to help.”
Allex’s last-call notice completes a third strong year of community engagement for the Yacht Club of Stone Harbor. Organizational effort has sprouted under the guidance of Tim Clay, a former commodore and still a prominent member of the outreach committee.
Two years ago, Clay formalized the Yacht Club’s charity focus, creating committees and program names with a well-defined purpose. That resulted in specific food, toy, and blood drives.
Along the way, partnerships emerged with the Chamber of Commerce, the mayor’s office and real estate agencies like Coldwell Banker and Diller Fisher, which procured donated items under a Checkout Hunger program.
Renters were advised of the program upon entering their property and delivered contributions when they checked out.
“Some renters went above and beyond what they had been asked to do,” Clay says. “They went so far as to go out and shop, buying the stuff for us, whether that was cases of water or canned goods.
“We have so many people active in the community and looking to help, but nothing had been previously organized under a committee head. Once we named it, more people came forward to contribute.
“Years ago, I learned that people just need to be asked. We live in such a world of takers that we don’t often realize how many givers there are.”
Clay lauded Allex’s group, calling it a godsend and some of the most generous people he’s ever seen.
“When members find out that other people in the club are doing good things for people, it motivates them to want to help out. We are part of the community.
“Our members are incredibly generous and this is a great time for that. People have been hit hard in this area, especially in the service industry, which is significant in a resort town. People did not have unionized labor jobs. We notice an increased need for people.
“It’s easy to lose sight of what’s going on outside of one’s own little world,” Clay says.
Fortunately for the charities, Clay’s world will ultimately focus more on Stone Harbor. Tim and his wife Rose, a fellow dentist, own a practice in Wilmington, Del. They will increase their presence here, especially during retirement. Rose, has also been prominent in the outreach committee.
“This is a wonderful place to be and we look forward to spending even more time in Stone Harbor,” Tim Clay says.
The Stone Harbor Property Owners Association welcomes that sentiment. Tim Clay recently was named its 2020 Citizen of the Year.
