Brian Kirk, pictured at a past edition of the Jersey Shore Partnership Summer Celebration, helps the nonprofit ring in summer 2017 at Monday night’s annual event.
They call themselves “The Sand on the Beach People” — and each and every year about this time, the folks who make up the nonprofit Jersey Shore Partnership host an official welcome to the warm-weather primetime season on Sandy Hook.
This coming Monday, June 5, a cast of political dignitaries, business leaders, entertainers and members of the Shore’s culinary community will gather at the northern end of the peninsula for the 2017 edition of the annual Summer Celebration.
A big-tent event that takes place beneath a literal big tent, pitched on the bayfront side of the historic Fort Hancock area, the Celebration traditionally hosts some 500 guests each year in an evening of food, music and special presentations, from which proceeds support the Partnership’s efforts to secure funding for beach protection projects, on local, state and federal levels.
State Senator Joseph Kyrillos and wife Susan Kyrillos serve as honorary chairs for this year’s event, with special Leadership and Community Service awards going out to such organizations and individuals as Hackensack Meridian Health, Curtis Bashaw of Cape Advisors, and Domenic DiPiero of Newport Capital Group.
A collection of some of the area’s most popular restaurants and purveyors of seafood will furnish the featured feast, while a local institution of a particularly party-starting kind — the venerable Brian Kirk & the Jirks — serve up a sonic smorgasbord of tunes.
The Monday evening event runs from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., with an announced rain date of Tuesday, June 6. Tickets ($120) are still on sale as we post this, and can be reserved right here, with additional information available by calling (732)330-4443 or dispatching an email here.
