Cassandra Vitale tracked the early reports on Hurricane Sandy and believed the predictions about the storm's ferocity.
"She kept calling ... 'Ma, it's going to be real bad. You better get out of there,' " said her mother, Dawn Vitale.
Cassandra was living in Fort Lauderdale then, but was a Jersey Shore girl - Beachwood born and raised - so she packed a bag and jumped in her father's company van. She followed the storm up the coast with no real plan: She just knew she wanted to help.
"That's the way she was. She connected with people. Everyone she met, she helped in some way," said her brother, J.R. Vitale.
She helped so many people in her life, maybe she'll help someone with her death." -- Dawn Vitale
Cassandra Vitale arrived the day after the storm and went right to where help was needed most. She talked her way onto the barrier island near Seaside Heights and drove through sand-covered streets strewn with the debris of so many broken homes.
She parked her van at the EMS Station on 6th Avenue in Ortley Beach and the Bucket Brigade was born. Vitale figured out ways to get what everybody needed: coffee and hot meals for the National Guard; bleach, garbage bags, mops, gloves, masks, cleaning supplies - all in warehouse volume - for the people arriving home to begin the long road back.
"She just went out and got donations,'' said Joan DeLucia, whose volunteer group, Weekday Warriors, demolished 1,200 Sandy-ravaged homes and worked closely with the Bucket Brigade. "She always came back with truckloads of something. She helped hundreds and hundreds of people."
From the van on 6th Avenue, the operation grew to a donated construction trailer in the A&P parking lot as the donations kept coming and her crew kept getting bigger. Soon, Vitale was distributing tools and building supplies. At just 26, Vitale became a local legend for her ability to get what people needed.
"She was a great example of how one person can make a huge difference, and she made a huge difference," DeLucia said.
So when word spread earlier this week that Vitale, now 29, had died in Florida, all those people she had touched reacted with sadness, matched only by shock.
"It rocked me," said Kenneth Vasquez, who "lost everything" in the storm. "It hit me like a sledgehammer. I get choked up just thinking about it, and I think about it a lot."
Vasquez was a frequent visitor to Bucket Brigade headquarters on the island.
"She knew a lot of people couldn't get to the other donation centers," he said. "She was smart. She went to where the people were."
And at times, she even delivered the goods.
"She came to our house with cleaning supplies and also made sure we had hot meals when we were working on our home," said Nancy Phander. "She was a true, dear friend."
Vitale's brother remembered the day she took a can of pink spray paint and wrote "Stop staring, start caring," as rubberneckers began to cruise through the area.
"She wasn't a talker, she got things done," J.R. Vitale said. "The way she saw things, the world, was just bigger than most people. I don't know how to really describe it. To her, everything was an adventure."
For the first couple of months, Cassandra slept in her truck, unable to pull herself away.
"She came to my house a couple of times to shower, but she wanted to be where the action was," J.R. said.
Finally, DeLucia convinced her to stop living in the truck.
"After a while I said, 'This is crazy. Come stay with me. I'm right over the bridge,' " DeLucia said.
Still, Vitale worked almost around the clock. The volume of donations that came and went was box store-like and her trailer was one of the busiest places in town, one-stop shopping for people trying to rebuild their lives.
But when the need died down, what happened next was seemingly inexplicable.
She began using heroin, which is sadly prevalent in Ocean County. Of the 557 heroin deaths in New Jersey last year, almost 20 percent were in that county.
"I think it left a real void in her life," her brother said. "Or maybe she just had to numb herself from all the suffering she saw. That's what heroin does. It numbs you."
She went into rehab last summer, and went back to Florida and seemed to be doing well in her new job selling fuel oil to cruise lines. Her brother saw her two weeks ago at the funeral for their grandmother and "she was okay."
DeLucia talked to her on the phone two days before she died "and she was like her normal, happy-go-lucky, self."
Dawn Vitale said the family did not want to hide the cause of death because "the truth is the truth."
"She helped so many people in her life, maybe she'll help someone with her death," she said. "Because if it could happen to a kid like this, it could happen to anybody.
People should understand that about this drug. It can happen to anybody.
I'm posting this because I was talking about keeping our memories green.....
Here is a girl who had seemingly unlimited energy and love for others....very unselfish...in contrast to the selfish demeanor by many in today's society....
With all she did for others...she fell victim to a heroin addiction.....
It is tragic to me how many younger people today are doing heroin...
As the article said....Oeean County has one of the largeest % of users in the state.....
I can't do much to change these circumstances....
Just thought I would post it.....
Not to talk about drug use... But to lament that here was a young woman who really tried to make difference....and
she's gone..
She gave her ALL to help others.....remarkable fortitude and courage...
And yet...she still fell victim to the Addiction...which is Cunning, Baffling, and Powerful........
Every time someone says to me..
"Rich you are doing great...all those years of Sobriety....you're finally "cured"!
It's not that simple.....
If you return to the old behaviors...
It's easy to return to the addiction as well.....
One Day at a Time.....
I hope all who read this remember that......
I have the utmost in heartfelt sadness and sympathy for this girl and her family...
Jonthepain says the following so much....I have to give him the credit.... "There but for the Grace of God....Go I...."
My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Cassandra Vitale.
A young Sandy hero dies during her personal recovery
Mark Di Ionno
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