teeth, right? i think people were, you know, a lot of people were down and out and some people still are. reporter: after months of hard work, rebuilding homes and restoring the shore line, just half of sea bright s 1,400 residents are currently back in their homes. we had to essentially take care of the residents and first responders and there wasn t a place to get a drink or eat anything for miles and so that is where chris wood came into the picture and he took it on himself to organize a relief effort that has really become a model on how dodd it. reporter: with his restaurant off the coast, chris wood took it upon himself to get this fragile community back on its feet. my business partner came up with the idea, well, let s start a nonprofit and let s call it we pete came with the name sea
a little girl i met in middletown who i ve called a couple times since then. i got her cell phone number from her that day and she is 9 and her name is ginger. she was the only child who came up to me during this two weeks who was in tears when she came to see mimi and told me how scared she was and she didn t have a house any more. i will never forget her. that was governor chris christie describing one victim of sandy who has found a special place in his heart. she is now 10-year-old ginger doherty and joins us now with her mother gail and also on the set in asbury park the first lady of new jersey and chair of the new jersey relief fund, mary pat christie. so good to have you on the show! great to be here. great to be here. how is the relief fund going? a lot of people still hurting. we look at the shot six months later and, boy, it s still tough.
bright rising. today i think we have raised $1.25 million and given awe over 700,000 with assisted 225 families, about 10 or 11 businesses. and we are starting to work on some of the infrastructure in town. this is a tight-knit community where people stick together and, frankly, why people choose to live here. countless amounts of people are have fond, fond memories of this town and, as a result, people have come to its rescue of sorts. it doesn t matter. it doesn t matter if you live in a house with bean bags and microwaves because material things don t matter. it s just the people that matter. joining us here here is mike barnicle and jon beach mooech a.