{"id":3643,"date":"2015-03-01T05:29:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T10:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=3643"},"modified":"2015-03-01T02:23:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T07:23:29","slug":"celebrating-life-helping-those-in-need-with-the-bobby-buecker-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2015\/03\/celebrating-life-helping-those-in-need-with-the-bobby-buecker-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Life, Helping Those in Need With the Bobby Buecker Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Infernos perform at the Bobby Buecker Foundation dinner, Feb. 28, 2015. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

For Ed Buecker, \u201cbringing a little joy\u201d to the lives of a family feeling the effects of a loved one suffering from a catastrophic illness is a mission he has taken on for years \u2013 with a lot of help from the Brick community.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby<\/a>

Bobby Buecker (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Bobby Buecker Foundation \u2013 named for Ed\u2019s son, who lost his life to cancer in 1998 at age 15 \u2013 helps fill the gaps that other nonprofit organizations frequently miss, such as meals, travel expenses, or some help with bills. The organization began after Bobby died, and the family found themselves with a large amount of money the community had raised to help them during his illness. Instead of spending it, they decided to help other families facing what they had already lived through, and the foundation was born.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, more than 380 local residents gathered for the organization\u2019s signature event \u2013 an annual dinner-dance held at St. Dominic Parish Center dubbed \u201cCocktails, Carrabba\u2019s & The Infernos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organized by John Catalano, a longtime friend of the Buecker family, Carrabba\u2019s donates food for the event, and The Infernos, a legendary Jersey Shore cover band, provides the entertainment. Also recognized this year was the Metedeconk River Yacht Club, which selected the foundation as the beneficiary of a charity sailing event that was held last summer. But the best part is the difference those who attend make in the lives of families facing unimaginable challenges.<\/p>\n

\"Congressman<\/a>

Congressman Tom MacArthur shakes hands with Ed Buecker. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat we have here is community,\u201d said Ed Buecker. \u201cWonderful, wonderful people who come out and honor my son\u2019s name and our family with this foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just a grassroots foundation,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe help out with the little things and make a little joy in people\u2019s lives who are battling and struggling with the trials of illness and life. That\u2019s all we do, and if we can put smiles on people\u2019s faces, that\u2019s what we\u2019re all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

One supporter who has been attending the event for several years is Congressman Tom MacArthur, who suffered the loss of his 11-year-old daughter in 1996, the same year Bobby Buecker was diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor someone to take a tragic event in their life, and turn it into a blessing for many, many others, God bless you for what you do,\u201d MacArthur told Buecker.<\/p>\n

Ed Buecker will also be honored this year with the Boy Scouts of America\u2019s Good Turn award, said Police Chief Nils R. Bergquist, who made the announcement at Saturday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A packed house at St. Dominic Parish Center for the Bobby Buecker Foundation dinner-dance. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI get to meet a lot of people who really give a lot of things back to this community, and Eddie, you\u2019ve given a lot to this community for many years,\u201d said Bergquist.<\/p>\n

Buecker said he will continue to run the foundation as long as he has the support of the Brick community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing for me tonight is gratitude \u2013 gratitude for having each and every one of you in our lives to keep this foundation going,\u201d Buecker said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough out there, many of us are constantly juggling and reworking the checkbook every month and it gets difficult, but you guys keep supporting us and supporting us.\u201d<\/p>\n[divider]\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Ed Buecker, \u201cbringing a little joy\u201d to the lives of a family feeling the effects of a loved one suffering from a catastrophic illness is a mission he has taken on for years \u2013 with a lot of help from the Brick community. The Bobby Buecker Foundation \u2013 named for Ed\u2019s son, who lost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[1033,884,24,1034,277],"class_list":["post-3643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","tag-bobby-buecker","tag-bobby-buecker-foundation","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-ed-buecker","tag-tom-macarthur"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/DSC_0090.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-WL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}