{"id":18008,"date":"2025-09-17T04:23:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T08:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=18008"},"modified":"2025-09-17T04:23:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T08:23:27","slug":"lavallette-lifeguards-honored-for-rescuing-20-children-from-ocean-sandbar-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2025\/09\/lavallette-lifeguards-honored-for-rescuing-20-children-from-ocean-sandbar-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavallette Lifeguards Honored for Rescuing 20 Children From Ocean Sandbar Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New Jersey State Assemblyman Paul Kanitra honors Lavallette lifeguards involved in the rescue of 20 children in Aug. 2025. (Photo: Barbara Sussino)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lavallette lifeguards were honored this week by state and local officials at a borough council meeting for their heroic efforts that resulted in about 20 children being brought to safety in August.<\/p>\n

The incident, which occurred Aug. 11, resulted from a rip current that developed after a sandbar \u2013 the development of which many attribute to the recent beach replenishment project \u2013 “collapsed” in the ocean due to the pressure from currents. When the bar developed a breach, a rip current formed as water began flowing outward, creating an instant hazard for the group of children from the Lavallette Yacht Club’s summer sailing program, who were spending a day at the beach.<\/p>\n

“These were heroic, life-saving actions,” said Mayor Walter LaCicero, who was joined by his colleagues on the borough council as well as state Assemblyman Paul Kanitra (R-Ocean), who arranged a joint legislative resolution in Trenton to recognize the actions of the guards.<\/p>\n

What could have quickly turned into a tragic afternoon of historic proportions became a testament to the local guards’ training as well as the preparation of the entire beach staff for emergencies. After a beach employee spotted the children caught in the current, they notified a senior lifeguard who radioed for help. Eight guards entered the water to save the group of kids, who were scattered 50 to 150 feet apart, officials said. Additional members of the rescue team stayed on shore in order to provide the final life out of the water and ensure everyone returned to shore safely.<\/p>\n

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New Jersey State Assemblyman Paul Kanitra honors Lavallette lifeguards involved in the rescue of 20 children in Aug. 2025. (Photo: Barbara Sussino)<\/p><\/div>\n

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A rip current captured by Shorebeat’s cameras off Brick Township, Sept. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

The guards honored include Chase Adams, Logan Batyr, Brady Krohn, Matt Liotti, Adam Mekrami, Charlotte Mereno, Tristen Rodriguez , Joe Sles, Kasey Sles, Julia and Ulrich. Supervisors Capt. Jack Caucino, Sgt. Jeff Horn, Sgt. Ben Dupree, Lt. Joe Caucino, and Lt. Scott Darby were, likewise, honored for their actions. In addition to the honoring resolution passed by the legislature, the guards received similar honorary proclamations from LaCicero.<\/p>\n

“We are so grateful \u2013 this avoided a tragedy that is unspeakable,” said Borough Attorney Bill Burns, who also serves as the volunteer Vice Commodore of the yacht club that hosted the day at the beach for the young sailors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Lavallette lifeguards were honored this week by state and local officials at a borough council meeting for their heroic efforts that resulted in about 20 children being brought to safety in August. The incident, which occurred Aug. 11, resulted from a rip current that developed after a sandbar \u2013 the development of which many attribute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[1959,29,50,1441],"class_list":["post-18008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lavallette","tag-featured","tag-lavallette-nj-news","tag-lifeguards","tag-ocean-rescue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_4888-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-4Gs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18012,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008\/revisions\/18012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}