JONES BEACH, N.Y. -- Recruiters from Recruiting Stations New York and New Jersey combined their professional selling skills this weekend to seek out some of the finest young men and women interested in joining the ranks of the few and the proud. On June 19, K-ROCK radio hosted their Annual Dysfunctional Family Picnic Concert at Jones Beach. The show featured bands such as The Beastie Boys, The Strokes, Cypress Hill, The Darkness, and a special guest appearance by Jay-Z.
Over 13,000 young men and women were in attendance to see the show first-hand. The Marines of RS New York and RS New Jersey showcased the positive attributes the Marine Corps can offer today’s youth by setting up a booth at the event. As well as the booth the Marine Corps Hummer (event marketing vehicle), inflatable drill instructor and pull-up bars were there.
The recruiters were tasked with the mission of having 350 event cards filled out by day’s end. Those cards are turned into Merkle, a company the Marine Corps uses for tracking leads of those interested in obtaining more information about the Marine Corps. Leads are then generated into Priority Prospect Cards (PPC) and sent out to the local recruiter.
At the end of the day 440 leads were generated, a task which was once thought unreachable.
To have the booth at the concert cost $5,000 and entailed three months of planning. The time and money for the event was well spent and the recruiters could not have asked for any better results. They went above and beyond the mission by obtaining 90 extra leads. Any one or all of those leads could potentially be the newest Marine to march across the parade deck at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C.
Those who participated in the pull-up challenge received different incentive items based on their results. Males who completed 20 pull-ups and females who completed a 70 second flex-arm hang received a black, “Pain is weakness leaving the body” t-shirt. All participants received a Marine Corps lanyard or D-ring for participating and showing their interest in the Marine Corps booth.
“There must be something in the water here in New York because you guys are running out of t-shirts,” Ken Seale of Summit, New Jersey said.
Of all the booths set up at the venue, the Marine Corps’ was the one that stood out. Whether it was the extraordinary sound system along with the plasma television and Playstation 2, which attracted the crowd or something as simple as the pull-up challenge, young men and women showed their interest in finding out what the Corps has to offer them.
A representative from the K-ROCK radio station said, “People just don’t understand what is going on in the world today, but the Marines always stick out as the force that gets the job done when duty calls.”
Throughout the day, the recruiters shook hundreds of hands and received a thousand “thank you’s” from the concert attendees. Staff Sgt. Matthew Krasinski of Recruiting Sub Station Patchogue, N.Y., is fairly new to the world of Marine Corps recruiting and could not believe the overwhelming welcome the Marines received from the general public.
“The one defining aspect that made the Marine Corps' participation in this year's KROCK DFP so successful was energy. If you exude positive energy, other people pick up on it and are drawn to you. That's exactly what happened at Jones Beach. From the moment the concert-goers came within earshot of the music pouring out of the back of the EMV, they knew something different was going on,” said Capt. Chad R. Timmons, executive officer, Recruiting Station New Jersey. “The great part about it was that a large portion of the crowd was avidly participating in the motivation. Men, women, boyfriends, girlfriends, everyone who passed by the display could not help but get into the spirit of the event. The participants and the crowd, fed by the Marines Corps own brand of enthusiasm, made the event second only to the actual concert.”