Holly Sprick of Berkeley, N.J., and Shannon Pryor of Toms River, N.J., are the creators of Hurricane Sandy Lost Treasures, a Facebook group created to reunite lost items with their owners.
(Photo: Doug Hood, The Asbury Park, N.J., Press)

Two women created page to return cherished items that were washed away to rightful owners.


TOMS RIVER, N.J. -- Shortly after superstorm Sandy washed over the New Jersey shore, Holly Sprick was on Facebook.

There, she saw her neighbor in South Seaside Park had posted a picture of a sign they later learned had floated miles north to Brick. That got Sprick and her friend Shannon Pryor thinking how much was lost and how far some cherished items traveled in the storm.

It was the beginning of an ongoing effort that, so far, has reunited about 200 items with their owners who lost them during the Oct. 29 storm.

The two women, each with ties to the area, started a Facebook page called Hurricane Sandy Lost Treasures to connect people with the personal belongings that Sandy's floodwaters seemingly washed away. They brought together the Shore community in a way only social media can, helping photos, memorial pieces, toys, jewelry and even boats return to their owners.

"Because there's so much devastation, seeing a positive update in the news feed gives them hope," Pryor said.

Sprick, 24, who lives in Franklin, N.J., and Pryor, 25, a Toms River resident, started the Facebook page Nov. 11 to provide a place where people could post items they lost or found.

They were surprised by how quickly their page gathered support, now with more than 4,000 "likes."

"If you even reach out to one person, it just snowballs," she said.

Sprick and Pryor divided photos on the page, including family photos, jewelry and other mementos, into three categories: objects that have been found, were lost, or have been reunited.

The page helped reunite a large piece of a plaque lost from St. Elisabeth's Chapel by the Sea in Ortley Beach, which sustained major damage during Sandy.


This letter is among items lost after superstorm Sandy that Holly Sprick and Shannon Pryor are trying to reunite with owners using Facebook(Photo: Doug Hood, The Asbury Park, N.J., Press)

It listed the names of people who had done something special for the church, like the volunteer organist, former chapel trustees, and someone who provided refreshments week after week, chapel warden Dennis Bellars said. The women used the names to trace the plaque to the church.

"It meant everything to us to get that back," he said. "That was the first piece of the chapel that had been recovered."

After learning that the plaque was found in the Silverton section of Toms River, the church had a compass for finding other lost items, Bellars said.

The women have a story for nearly every item they return, but they have a few favorites.

For Sprick it was heartwarming to help reunite a woman with the letters she and her husband wrote to one another in the 1940s. They were lost in Ortley Beach, where she had a home.

Pryor's favorite moment came from returning a memorial plaque she found leaning against a home in Lavallette that had floated about five miles from Mantoloking. It was posted at a spot where a woman and her son used to visit to honor her late husband.

"They were pretty surprised after seeing it online because they thought it was something that was gone forever," Pryor said.

Kristi Funderburk, The Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

Source: usatoday.com