Jersey Shore Magazine

J e r s e y s h o r e • F A L L / H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 5 40 JERSEY SHORE PEOPLE Shore Connected The Men Behind Two Popular Social Media Sites About The Jersey Shore by Jill M. Ocone continued on page 42 T wo trusted Shore area Facebook pages are in the newsfeeds of over 230,000 loyal followers from near and far. From weather and sunsets to lost dogs and emergency information, to keep informed, people are quick to check both the Jersey Shore Hurricane News page, administered by Justin Auciello, and the Barnegat Bay Island page, administered by Jerry Meaney. What it takes to run each page with success is dedication, altruism, and a love for the Jersey Shore. The Birth Of The Barnegat Bay Island Page Jerry Meaney has always been interested in photography. Over the years, he has taken scores of photo- graphs, including several while clean- ing up at the World Trade Center site after 9-11. As his interest grew, his equipment became more sophisticat- ed, and the retired EMT found he was taking more and more photographs of the Jersey Shore. "At the time, I was posting my pictures to my private Facebook page, but I wanted another outlet. The best thing for me to do was to start a community page on Facebook. Since I took most of my photos between Manasquan Inlet and the end of Island Beach State Park, the perfect name for my page was Barnegat Bay Island," he explained. In 2010, he created the Barnegat Bay Island (BBI) Facebook page, which now has over 6,200 followers. In the early days, he shared his pho- tos of the area with bits of history about the locations. The BBI page has turned into a journal of what he sees and how he sees it. "I'm just a picture taker," Meaney said, "and a good day for me is when I am on the beach before sunrise to capture the beginning of a new day." One of Meaney's favorite places to start his day is on the Point Pleasant Beach side of the Manasquan Inlet. His extraordinary talent in compos- ing images of the sunrise with the rocks, trawlers, surfers, and boats leads to comments and likes from people all over the world. "BBI fol- lowers feel that the Jersey Shore is part of them, no matter where they are. They look at my pictures of the beach, of the shore, and it brings them back here. They are here in mind, even though they aren't physi- cally here," he said. While the BBI page serves the Jersey Shore community with infor- mation and images, Meaney has established a style that is more of a daily journal versus an outlet for news stories. He estimates that on more than two hundred days a year, he is somewhere on a beach in Ocean County taking photos. Meaney said, "Surfers in Bay Head and at Jenks, the Bay Head beaches, from the Inlet down to Seaside, I'm there in the freezing cold, rain, heat, humidity, snow. Whatever weather condition, I'm there to photograph what I see." Meaney is currently captain of the Point Pleasant Beach First Aid depart- ment, which he has been involved with as a volunteer EMT since 2001. As such, his commitment to the community takes him to events that other people might not have access to. However, he is careful to put his role as a first responder before his role as a storyteller. "I do not want the BBI page to be political in any way," he explained. "I do not want anything negative posted by others, either. Too many people think they have the right

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