Ocean City Ready to Help Its Filipino Sister City

A little more than a year after organizing a massive relief effort at home in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Ocean City is preparing to help its "sister city" in the Philippines recover from a much more powerful and deadly storm. 

Deputy Counsel Zaldy Patron from the Consulate General of the Philippines in New York City visited Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian's office on Monday morning to report on the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan (also known as Typhoon Yolanda) and to ask for help.

The early-November typhoon was the strongest ever recorded at landfall with winds between 170 and 199 mph. Haiyan killed more than 5,200 people, left more than 565,000 without shelter and more than 2.5 million without food, Patron said.

In a show of international good will and shared marketing, Ocean City and San Jose Occidental Mindoro became "sister cities" four years ago. The partnership includes an annual Philippine Trade Exhibition every summer, but now it will include a shared relief effort.

Patron said San Jose Occidental Mindoro was not in the direct path of the storm and did not suffer the damage that other towns in the Philippines did. But the need for assistance in other towns in the Philippines is so great that Patron is asking Ocean City residents for any help they can offer.

"Many children have become parentless, and many parents have become childless," Patron said.

There are a number of ways members of the Ocean City community can help:

• Donations can be made through OCNJ CARE at ocnjcare.org or by mailing checks (made payable to Philippine Jesuits Foundation with Yolanda Calamity Fund on the memo line) to OCNJ CARE, P.O. Box 807, Ocean City, NJ 08226.
• Packages of clothing and other necessities can be dropped off at the Ebby, 820 E. Sixth Street, where Mary Ann Sese will transport them to Jade's Filipino Restaurant and Grocery in Egg Harbor Township for free shipping to the Philippines.
• Sese is also working with the school district to solicit $1 donations from the families of district children.
• First Night Ocean City and Norman Schaut's craft shows will make donations.
• The city is in the process of planning a fundraising walk in partnership with the Atlantic County Philippine Organization.
• The city is planning a new event for March: the Mr. Mature America Pageant for men over age 60. Proceeds will go to both the Philippines and the Ocean City Ecumenical Council Food Cupboard. (Noting that no such pageant currently exists, the wry Ocean City public relations director, Mark Soifer, said the situation "must be rectified.")
• Proceeds from a new $50 per table charge at the Philippine Trade Exhibition will go to the relief fund.