About OPCL and Meet the Board!

Ocean Park Civic League is a neighborhood association founded on November 28, 1944. Then as now, membership was open to all property owners and residents of Ocean Park. With those civic minded pioneers as the foundation, the Ocean Park Civic League continues to be strong and assert its influence for the benefit of the community.  Ocean Park stretches west along Shore Dr. from the Lesner Bridge to Pleasure House Creek (7/11) but no further west of Sunvista Drive (excludes Aeries On the Bay). OPCL is committed to working toward improvements in Ocean Park. We do our best to work for everyone in Ocean Park and  we’d love your participation whether it’s once, once a month, once a week or everyday. Want to get involved and work with your neighbors to support our community? You can join a committee (see list of the chair folks below to volunteer) or answer a call to serve on the board when the time comes. Contact Danny Murphy at president@opcl.org.

Thanks for getting involved now!

Link to the bylaws:  Final Bylaws adopted February 2021.pdf

Board of Directors:

• • • President- Danny Murphy: “I am a native of Virginia Beach and longtime resident of Shore Drive. I graduated from both Virginia Wesleyan University and Old Dominion University. While I spent 20 years in corporate marketing, I’ve also owned several small businesses in the area including the Gateaux Bakery & Cafe.  My goals for the civic league are to improve safety, quality of life, and reinforce the community spirit which binds our neighborhood.”

• • • Vice President- Andrea Lindemann: “As a military family, we have moved at least 14 times and lived in many great places around the world. Along the way, I have had various jobs: from a Russian Interpreter to a high school ESOL teacher! After 30 years of nomadic military life, we settled down in Ocean Park because it is everything we hoped to find in a community-friendly, neighborly people and a beautiful beach! We have lived in many places and know that this is a special one. I want to work toward preserving this unique place. Nowadays I keep up the website and have lots of Ocean Park t-shirts for sale in my garage!”

• • •   Secretary-Christy Allen 

• • •   Treasurer- Blake Norris: “I’ve been semi-retired since 2017. I’ve lived in Ocean Park for 5 years. I lived in Great Neck for 30 years. I have two grown and married children and we will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in April 2021. I have been OPCL Treasurer for 3+ years.

• • • Northside Rep- Paul Schubert: Paul considers himself fortunate to have found a home in Ocean Park (Pelican Dunes) in 1999 and a Virginia Beach Resident since1980. He and his wife Cathy cherish their home near the beach, though curse the beach when storms bring it too close to their home! He has seen over time and tide welcome changes to Ocean Park without sacrificing the warmth and charm that we all enjoy here. He is an ardent defender of that neighborhood charm, property rights, and the responsible development of land in Ocean Park.
           Recently he has retired from a long and diverse career that started and ended with the Navy – in and out of uniform. His professional expertise was the technical side of television broadcasting and information technology.He is the current and founding moderator for the Ocean Park Nextdoor social media site where he strives to maintain civility in a keyboard-driven world. As the Government Affairs watchdog for
      Ocean Park, he enjoys keeping tabs on the workings of local politics which is one of his many hobbies; that also includes being the household handyman, Harley Davidson motorcycle enthusiast, golfer of many lost balls, model shipbuilding, bread making, and guitar strumming to name a few. He hopes to one day see completed sidewalks on Shore drive in Ocean Park!

• • • Southside Rep- Brian Snyder: Brian Snyder lives in Ocean Park with his wife Jenny, son Creighton and his new baby brother. You’ll see them outside year-round enjoying the beach, Pleasure House Point, and surrounding trails with their dog Kona. Brian is a graduate of Virginia Tech and a partner at Clark Nexsen, working as a structural engineer and project manager.

• • • At Large Rep-Jill Doczi: Jill Doczi writes and edits in public relations, marketing, and journalism, in addition to organization project management for special events. She has started and run two farmers’ markets to further her mission of supporting local food producers and the availability of fresh food to the community. She also invests heavily in the Ocean Park neighborhood and surrounding area by volunteering as the fireworks chairperson for about a decade, previously writing, designing, and editing the Ocean Park Echo newsletter for a decade, and participating in civic league activities. She truly appreciates the majority of her neighbors and how lucky we are to live in this magical neighborhood by the bay. She has resided in Virginia Beach-her home since the end of high school and has lived in two locations in Ocean Park since moving here just after college. She enjoys overseeing her postage stamp of property by the bay while defending her “urban farmstead” from squirrels.

• • •       At Large Rep- Shane Abell
  • • Scholarship Committee Chair- Betty Dierstein:  “I have been a resident of Virginia Beach since 1976 and a resident of Ocean Park since 2012. My five sons and their families all live in Virginia Beach, so I am a very lucky grandmother! I am a retired educator, and I enjoy being involved in my community and currently serve as both OPCL Secretary and Chair of the Scholarship Committee.
  • • Social Media- Jenny Snyder: Jenny lives in Ocean Park with her husband Brian, and their two beach boys. You’ll see them out enjoying all the neighborhood has to offer – from the boardwalk at the Lesner Bridge, to nature strolls around Pleasure House Point, to supporting local businesses, and of course soaking up the sun at the bay. A Tidewater native and resident of the Shore Dr corridor for over 10 years, Jenny loves to spend time enjoying all the water has to offer. She attended JMU (Go Dukes!) for undergrad and VCU where she earned her masters degree in Public Health. Jenny currently works for the Defense Health Agency supporting strategic communications for a healthcare analytic team. She loves to meet other neighbors who are passionate about where they live!

OPCL Committee Chairs 

Adopt-a-Park: Mary Faust   katytuesday@yahoo.com Echo Newsletter Editor: Jill Doczi    jilldoczi@gmail.com Finance Committee: Blake Norris    norrisblake1@outlook.com Fireworks: Jill Doczi      Jilldoczi@gmail.com Government Affairs: Paul Schubert  pschubert757@gmail.com Membership: Andrea Lindemann awrl95@icloud.com Scholarship: Betty Dierstein  bdierstein1@gmail.com Social Committee: Joanne Lappin Parker   lappinparker@gmail.com Social Media: co-chairs Brian Snyder basnyder@vt.edu and  Jenny Snyder JLBarber2@gmail.com  (Facebook/Instagram) and Paul Schubert (NextDoor) Website: Andrea Lindemann  awrl95@icloud.com If you would like to help out on one of the committees:  Contact the committee chair listed above or  at   communication@opcl.org  or  president@opcl.org

• Finance—Shall monitor and manage the resources in the League’s accounts. The Committee Chair shall work with the Treasurer to ensure that the accounts are accurately reported on as part of the regular Treasurer’s Report. Contact Danny Murphy: president@opcl.org.
• Scholarship—Shall provide oversight of the award and distribution of annual scholarship funds. This includes following the guidelines established by the scholarship application. The Chair shall assemble and meet with a minimum of two additional committee members annually to review the applications and make the award determination. Contact: Betty Dierstein bdierstein1@gmail.com. Deadline for 2023 is March 23.
• Government Affairs—Shall be responsible for monitoring and reporting on the activities of Local, State, and Federal government entities that have jurisdiction over and relevance to Ocean Park.
• Membership—Shall be responsible for keeping the membership roll; collecting dues by cash, check, credit card or online transaction such as PayPal; and promoting new membership. contact: Andrea Lindemann awrl95@icloud.com
• Social–Shall be responsible for planning and coordinating social activities such as, meet and greet events before General Membership meetings, raffles, larger membership gatherings such as Block Parties, Spring Flings, Bake sales, Chili-Cookoffs, etc., for the benefit of Ocean Park residents. Collaborate with the Membership committee, to use these social activities as a new membership drive. Promote these activities through (but not limited to) web and social media outlets. Meetings are the last Monday of the month at 6:00 pm at Taste unless otherwise planned. Contact: communication@opcl.org.
• Fireworks- we especially need help distributing the April newsletter about the fireworks and the donation envelopes in June. Contact: jilldoczi@gmail.com and communication@opcl.org.
• Board Positions: OPCL.org/aboutopcl and more details here By-laws-adopted February-2021 . Contact: President Danny Murphy at president@opcl.org.

Ocean Park Civic League (OPCL) is registered with the IRS as a non-profit 501(c)(4). Social Welfare Organizations To be tax-exempt as a social welfare organization described in Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 501(c)(4), an organization must not be organized for profit and must be operated exclusively to promote social welfare.

• Consult with your accountant about tax deduction questions.

Contributions to civic leagues or other section 501(c)(4) organizations generally are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

• • More info at IRS
  here   and   here

Just some photos from Ocean Park.