It’s been said it takes a village to raise a child. That is also true of building a resilient community to withstand any crisis, natural or otherwise – but the building blocks must first be in place. Luckily for the Long Beach Island region, they are.  

That was evident June 3 when more than three dozen business owners took time from preparing to reopen as Gov. Phil Murphy slowly loosens his restrictions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic to attend the annual Hometown Security program.