May Day Celebration At Island Beach State Park

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has announced the first May Day Celebration to be held at Island Beach State Park!

The May Day celebration will feature a series of fun, athletic events to benefit the non-profit volunteer group, Friends of Island Beach State Park. DEP’s State Park Service is allowing Friends of Island Beach State Park to collect a donation at the gate in lieu of standard park admission.

Registration for the events is currently open. Interested participants will meet at the Ocean Bathing Area 1 pavilion for all events. The May Day celebration will be held rain or shine and will start at 9am.

Mark Texel, Director of the State Park Service is "delighted to host this fun event for the first time for our dedicated partners, who provide so much to our park year after year,” and encourages "everyone to come out this Sunday with their game face on and to have some great fun.”

The volunteer Friends of Island Beach State Park formed in 1996 to encourage protection of the barrier island ecosystem and to enhance both educational and recreational programs at the park. The group now has 460 members, publishes and distributes 30,000 copies of the park’s Visitor Guide annually, has funded improvements to the park’s Nature Center and Interpretive Center, picnic tables, radios for Nature Center staff, and installation of state-of-the-art camera system to monitor an osprey nest at the park, among other needs.

May Day events will include:

• May Day 5K – A unique 5K run/walk on the beach, with post-race wraps and subs in the pavilion.
• May Day Ocean Paddleboard Contest – A 3.5-mile Ocean Paddle Race, which will run parallel to the beach. While all levels of paddlers are encouraged, ocean racing is more challenging than flat-water paddling. Island Beach State Park lifeguards will be monitoring the event.
• May Day Volleyball Tournament – Throughout the course of the day, a volleyball tournament featuring teams of two will be held. The tournament will be organized by the Ocean County Volleyball Club, All registrants will receive T-shirts.