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It’s been a high flying year for Jack Merritt, Ocean City’s reigning Mr. Mature America. Things will reach even greater heights on Friday, May 1. That’s when Merritt, 70, a retired management consultant from West Grove, Pa., will pilot his private plane from an airport near his farm to deliver donated items to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and to aid local residents in need. Merritt’s 1967 vintage Mooney aircraft is scheduled to take off at 4:45 p.m. with a planned landing 5:15 p.m. at Ocean City Municipal Airport. There, he will be met by volunteers from OCNJ CARE, the non-profit charged with helping first responders and those severely impacted by the crisis.

To “hit the ground running” is an aspiration with most new programs or enterprises, but for the newly re-started OCNJ CARE, it’s a misnomer. The organization, charged with helping locals in need as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, never hit the ground. It simply took off. “We’ve had a pretty good month,” said its chair, Ocean City resident Drew Fasy. “We were lucky to have the infrastructure in place from our Hurricane Sandy roots.” Fasy was quick to praise the responsive nature of Ocean City’s civic and business leaders, as well as the rank and file citizenry of the town in helping the organization to start achieving its mission almost immediately. This was no small task given the gravity, and unprecedented nature of the situation.

Residents of the Wesley by the Bay assisted living facility received free, hearty Easter Sunday dinners, courtesy of Wilson Plumbing and Heating of Ocean City. The Easter afternoon drop-off of the meals was attended by Wilson Plumbing and Heating’s proprietor Anthony “Tony” Wilson, who heard there was a need for the donation through Drew Fasy, the chairman of OCNJ CARE. Wilson serves on OCNJ CARE as one of its captains for the city’s Third Ward and is also the ward’s representative on City Council. OCNJ CARE is a nonprofit group set up to identify community needs, recruit volunteers, raise money and allocate resources to help locals in need due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The effort by a group of Ocean City men to purchase and deliver medical grade protective masks to aid the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic has been successful -- and then some. Andrew Moon and friends Billy Godfrey, Tony Wilson and Steve McKusker recently located a source for the preferred “N95” masks and purchased and delivered 250 each to Cape Regional Medical Center in Cape May Court House and Shore Medical Center in Somers Point. As needed and appreciated as the donations were, the men realized the lack of protective gear was an ongoing problem worldwide in the fight against the potentially deadly virus. They wanted to keep the project going and continue to provide the masks. As a result, Moon put together a GoFundMe page. The results are nothing short of remarkable. The men set a goal of $3,600 to pay for a new order of the masks, and in less than eight days, generous folks pushed the total amount raised to $4,300, or $700 more than the goal.

Dylan Dwyer has been playing lacrosse since he was in fifth grade and has been dedicated to working on his improvement at the sport he loves. All that hard work looks like it is paying off. Dylan, a faceoff midfielder, is in the Final 4 of the U.S. Club Lacrosse organization’s People’s Champion Awards for his age group. In the contest, determined by Internet votes, Dylan has advanced from the “Sweet 16” round to the “Elite 8” and now the Final 4. But to win the ultimate title, Dwyer needs your help. Those wishing to help should visit U.S. Club Lacrosse’s website and click on the People’s Champion awards banner on the front page. The website can be found here: www.usclublax.com.

Anyone who is a part of the Ocean City community as a permanent member or a devoted visitor will tell you that Ocean City doesn’t do things halfway. For example, when the challenge arose for Ocean City churches to keep their flocks connected in a virtual way during the most reverently observed week on the Christian calendar no less, church communities all over town rose to the occasion. Online worship, live streams of events, even a “Minecraft” video game-inspired Easter egg hunt for youngsters and online Easter fashion parade appeared in response to Gov. Phil Murphy’s and church leaders’ stay-at-home order to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Find a way.” It’s the longtime motto of the Ocean City High School football team under Head Coach Kevin Smith. It stands for resilience, creativity, persistence. “This is the ultimate ‘find a way’ time,” said Smith, whose team’s off-season training and spring sports activities have been shelved due to safety measures during the coronavirus outbreak. The Red Raiders are coming off their third straight year making the playoffs, a 9-3 season that included two postseason victories and a berth in the South Jersey title game. It was their best record in 20 years...

“We are in a war. It is a war against an invisible enemy,” said Mike Morrissey, VFW Post 6650 commander. “We’re in combat. When you go into combat, it helps to have men on your side who are combat veterans.” With that, the membership of Ocean City Ferguson-Foglio VFW Post 6650 dove headfirst into combatting the worldwide coronavirus pandemic by helping those around town. Over the past few days, members of the post have been cooking fresh, large-portion quality meals and getting them into the hands of the less fortunate and first responders. The donations are being distributed through the efforts of OCNJ CARE, the non-profit organization charged with raising funds, recruiting volunteers and seeing to the distribution of the help.

An Ocean City woman who teaches school in Upper Township has come up with a novel way for children to beat cabin fever during the coronavirus outbreak. She is having them set out on a “Bear Hunt.” The idea is a simple but fun one: to inform the neighbors to display stuffed bears and images of bears in windows, doorways, porches, and other spots around the community so that kids and their parents or caregivers could go for a walk and have a bear hunt.

Billy Godfrey and friends Andrew Moon, Tony Wilson and Steve McKusker were doing the right things. Like most Ocean City residents and visitors, the men were self-quarantined in their homes, practicing social distancing and venturing out and about only when necessary, and for approved reasons. The worldwide coronavirus pandemic had forced them to adhere to the so-called “new normal,” and they were doing so. “But we felt we had to do more than that,” Godfrey said. They did. They searched the internet and found and bought a supply of medical-grade masks. Now they have donated the masks to two local hospitals, the State Police and a nonprofit group called OCNJ CARE that is helping people affected by the coronavirus crisis.