By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – Cute yards signs showing support for local health care and other essential workers are going to be sprouting on lawns around the area.
Chris and Andrea Monihan of Ocean City heard about an idea done for a hospital in north Jersey and decided to try the same thing for Shore Medical Center in Somers Point.
They are paying for 200 yards signs, with a bright children’s drawing with the words, “Shore Healthcare Heroes: Thank you to all the healthcare heroes and essential workers,” on them and are offering the signs for a donation of $25 with all of the proceeds going to benefit Shore Medical Center.
They want to raise $5,000 for the local hospital, but more than that, they want visible reminders all around the local communities so workers at the hospital and others who can’t stay at home have the support of their friends and neighbors.
Monihan, a broker associate at Monihan Realty in Ocean City, said he and his wife wanted to find something they could do while adhering to the social distancing and stay-at-home orders in place across the state because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
His sister relayed an idea from where she lives in north Jersey and they found their answer – a yard sign to boost morale and benefit the hospital.
“My wife and I heard this and thought it isn’t going to take much energy for us to do and we can set everything up from home so we’re basically mimicking that idea,” he said last week. Once we know who purchased the sign, we’re going to go out and put it in their front yard so they don’t have to do anything. It’s social distancing. We’re going to be keeping our distance too.”
They hope it is more than just a donation. They want the signs to celebrate health care and other essential workers.
“Hopefully we get a lot of signs out there and when they’re driving to work it cheers them up a little bit and brightens their day. That’s the main point, but we also can donate money to a great cause,” Monihan said.
He added they reached out to a neighbor on their street, Julie Bickings, whose family does a lot of charitable work, and one of her good friends is Dr. Keith Grim, an emergency room doctor at Shore.
They know Bickings through Monihan Realty; the firm does a food and can drive in the summer called Shore 2 Share. Because the company has a lot of rentals, they put out information to all of the renters telling them when they are cleaning out at the end of their stay, they can drop off all unused food (still sealed) and hygiene products at Monihan Realty when they drop off the keys to their rentals.
Bickings, he noted, belongs to St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Ocean City, which houses the Ecumenical Food Cupboard. Each week Monihan Realty collected about 60 to 80 items to donate to the Food Cupboard. Last summer they donated more than a thousand items courtesy of their tenants who joined in the Shore 2 Share cause.
“Rather than throw it in the trash or leave, we put it to good use,” Monihan said.
“That is how her family and my family got together with this good idea for Shore Medical Center and the COVID-19 fund.”
Monihan is working with The Printing Company in Somers Point, run by Chugger LaCasse, a friend and Ocean City High School graduate.
Chris and Andrea Monihan are picking up the cost for the first 200 signs so all the money raised goes to Shore. They are aiming for a $5,000 donation overall.
Monihan said they are working with Shore Medical Center’s COVID-19 fund.
People who would like a sign for their yard and to donate to the fund, with at least $25, can go to the website, shoremedicalcenter.org/covid19-fund, and then click on “Make A Donation.” There is a box to click on the contribution page that says the $25 is for the Shore2Care Lawn Sign effort.
The information gathered on the site will provide the name and address so the sign can be placed into the donors’ yards.
“People can also email me directly and I can forward it on to the hospital,” he said. “We want it as easy as possible for people to donate.”
His email address is cmonihan@monihan.com.