Freehold First Aid Receives 8K Check

The received a really large $8,000 check to at their meeting on Thursday night.

“The Squad, which is all-volunteer, was overwhelmed with the amount of the check,” said Judi Guy, chair of the Freehold First Aid Fundraising Committee.

The Freehold First Aid Fundraising Committee raised this money through their on March 24 at the Park Avenue School. The original goal of the committee was $5,000.

The event was born when Guy heard about decreasing amount of donations received by the organization.

According to Guy, the First Aid used to raise money by going door-to-door soliciting funds. “Now, they just don't have the man-power, so they outsource their annual fund mailing and over the past few years, donations have steadily declined,” she explained.

Guy explained that response from their mailings was around 24% and from businesses only 15%. This past year fundraising fell short by about $9,000.

Hearing those numbers, Guy decided to help. “My professional background is in fundraising so it was an easy way for me to give back to the community,” said Guy. She works in the CentraState Healthcare Foundation, the fundraising "arm" for .

Guy said that the group of people she worked with made her job easy. “We had a small but hard-working committee and 26 volunteers from the Borough and the Township came out to help the day of the event,” she said. “It was awesome.”

The agreed that this was an awesome effort and honored the committee at their meeting on April 2 for “raising funds and awareness for the local first aid and emergency squad.” (See photo above)

Councilwoman Sharon Shutzer said she was extremely pleased with this fundraising effort and added, “You do not realize until you need the squads, how wonderful they truly are.”

If you would like to donate to the organization, click here.