Atlantic City, N.J. – Growing up, Abby Crawley dreamed about living in a city by the beach.

“Living in Atlantic City has been a dream. I’ve always wanted to live on the beach, having that beach view and being able to walk to the Boardwalk,” said the Pemberton native who’s spending her senior year at Kesselman Hall, one of the university’s residence halls in the city.

On Saturday, Oct. 25, she found a way to help the place where her dream came true by volunteering at the university’s Fourth Annual Community Day Clean Up and Party in the Park.

“This is my first year doing the cleanup, and it’s really cool to volunteer for something like this,” the Communication Studies major said. “I really like this area. I’ve always loves the beaches, so it’s nice to be able to give back in a way.”

Crawley was one of hundreds of volunteers who spent the morning picking up trash at several locations in six wards of the city from the beach in front of Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to the Chelsea neighborhood where Stockton’s Atlantic City campus is located. 

“It’s been an amazing day. I think we have more people than we expected, so folks are really enthusiastic to be out today,” said Brian K. Jackson, Stockton’s vice president for Community Engagement. The event had previously taken place in April, but Jackson decided this year to try the event in the fall. “It’s a beautiful day, and we’re all about beautifying Atlantic City.”

First-year Stockton student Monica Crispin decided to volunteer because it seemed a natural extension of her Social Work major.

“My goal is to help the community in the future, so I decided to come out and grow in my experience. I’m very proud of our progress,” said the Trenton native as she gestured to an empty parking lot next to the former Atlantic Club casino.

Crispin said that she and her friend Carlos Roca, also of Trenton, were working on their second bag of trash.

“It’s been nice to see community members walking by and watching us and smiling back,” she said.

Roca also lives in Kesselman Hall and wanted to support the city.

“I decided to come out to help the community and make it a better place and make it more livable,” said the Computer Science major. “I feel like Stockton should do more of these kinds of events and more volunteer work. It feels good to give back to the community.”

Jackson said the opportunity to work with community groups outside of Stockton is one of the main reasons the university started the event.

“We are an Anchor Institution, and it’s our commitment to the community to give back. For me, it’s about partnering with members of the community, with the residents, with the neighborhood associations and with the city,” Jackson said. “It’s a collaboration and a partnership. That’s the only way we can pull something like this off.”

Brandon and Kelly Austin worked with their neighbors in Chelsea Heights to start a new civic association, and Saturday’s cleanup was the first event the new group participated in together.

“We are still in the establishment process to create a group that will better our neighborhood and build better community,” Brandon said. “But we are hoping to get to know each other better. If other people see us doing it, they may want to help and do it next time.”

Following the cleanup, the volunteers joined other community members for a party in O’Donnell Park. Jackson said more than 60 vendors signed up to participate, including food trucks, community groups, crafters, musicians and a petting zoo.

Shelly Blumenthal, 69, signed up for the cleanup because “the beach and the ocean are my favorite places on Earth.” But the Atlantic City High School graduate was especially impressed with how the party transformed O’Donnell Park.

“I went to high school right over there,” the Egg Harbor Township resident said as she gestured to Stockton’s John F. Scarpa Academic Center, which was built on the site of her high school alma mater. “Stockton has brought this park back to life. I think this is wonderful. I’m very happy that Stockton is here, and I’m really excited to see how the university has brought this part of the city back.”

Jackson said the event will continue to evolve, but at its core the cleanup and party are all about celebrating Atlantic City’s distinct communities.

“We hope that people recognize that Stockton’s here for the long haul, and that it’s going to be initiatives and events like this that help the community understand that Stockton wants to be a community partner,” he said.

-- Story and photos by Mark Melhorn