Apart from four years of
college in Middlebury, Vermont and a five-month stay in Segovia,
Spain, I have lived my entire life in northeastern New Jersey.
Before attending college, I was
unaware of the negative external images of New Jersey that exist
around the country. When I went to Middlebury College in
the fall of 2000, however, I realized how much New Jersey gets
made fun of by other states. People refer to the NJ Turnpike, the oil
refineries, and the supposed pollution of the state in order to
label it as "dirty." Of course, I had a strong reaction against these
claims, as I have had great experiences growing up in the Garden
State.
I always became frustrated when people continued to insult my State
without ever having been in it.
About halfway through my freshman
year at Middlebury, I met Michael Kirkland of
Summit, NJ. Mike soon told me about
a club he was running at school, called LOGS (Lovers of the Garden
State). I decided to attend my first meeting in January
of 2001, when the second semester began. Mike
and I eventually became good friends, and I continued
attending LOGS meetings for the duration of my college career.
It wasn't until the summer of 2002
that I came up with the premise of JerseyPride.com. After
realizing the idea, I quickly purchased the domain name JerseyPride.com from another Jersey native and
got to work.
IDEAS,
Inc. generously
agreed to host the site for me on its dedicated server, free of charge.
When I proposed the idea to
Kirkland in the fall of 2002, he was excited
and eager to get going on the project, a website
dedicated to our pride in New Jersey.
- Jeff |
