Our Mission
To reconnect everyone who lives, works, and plays at the Jersey Shore to the wild, unique, and beautiful ecosystem our summertime culture depends on.
The Issues
Like every place on Earth, the Jersey Shore is facing the effects of a climate that is warming at an unnatural rate. Extreme and unpredictable weather patterns, severe flooding and erosion, habitat and species loss, and poor water quality are all signs of this warming world. However, they are merely symptoms of a much larger issue - our collective disconnection from nature.
When people are disconnected from nature, these issues seem irrelevant in the grand scheme of our busy lives. So, when we do come to visit nature, when we come to vacation at the shore, we mistreat it with our negligence. With our minds focused on the biggest party and tuning out, we don't allow ourselves to tune into what really makes summer time at the shore so special... our environment! This disconnect can lead some to treat wildlife and the ecosystem poorly, harassing shorebirds, paving over dunes, filling in marshes...
Story to Reality
This disconnection from nature is due to a dangerous and outdated story that humanity and our society are somehow separate from nature. It's a luxury to live such a way, and it is not without its consequences.
Saving Summer offers a new narrative with a story that inspires a bright and hopeful vision of a reality where our culture, communities, and ecosystem exists in harmony, providing a more fulfilling and rewarding way of life down the shore.
Redefining Summertime at the Jersey Shore
Jersey has a reputation that in part, is well earned but largely undeserved, of being an unpleasant urban playground with an attitude problem. The reality TV show, Jersey Shore, only helped further this narrative and paint a skewed view of the area.
While the party scene and urbanization are a part of our region's story, it is not the full one. Saving Summer aims to redefine what people associate "Jersey Shore" with. Taking them from the shore that they know with all the parties and boardwalks, to the serene, wild, and natural world filled with more treasure than one could imagine. When people think of the Jersey Shore we want them to picture the rolling dunes, saltmarsh islands, and charismatic wildlife that sits adjacent to the colorful summer culture they already know and love - to begin to envision this place as an example of positive human and nature coexistence.
Amplifying the Impact
Our film will amplify the impacts of the environmentalists featured in our story. By presenting our characters as "conservation superheroes," we will not only educate and entertain, but be able to capture the imaginations of our audience.
Tangable Change
Saving Summer is a film with a purpose. By telling this story we aim to enhance and restore the way that people interact and experience summer at Jersey Shore. We will look to measure the following objectives to determine our film's impact:
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An increase in support for featured partners and groups, and other Jersey Shore conservation and environmental initiatives through financial contributions, volunteer engagement, and public interest.
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A decrease in public complaints and reports of disruptive behavior in local Jersey shore communities during peak summer tourism months.
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A decrease in reports of coastal wildlife harassment and mortality.
