Wes Kazmarck has been selected as the 2025 Citizen of the Year, the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce announced Thursday.
He will be honored at the Chamber’s 2025 Citizen of the Year and Outstanding Business and Beautification Awards dinner on Thursday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Ocean City Yacht Club, 100 Bay Road.
Kazmarck’s roots in the business community run deep. He is a third generation business owner in Ocean City. His grandparents built several hotels in town including Coral Sands and Sifting Sands. His late father, Alex Kazmarck, opened Surf Mall. Kazmarck and his brother, Chris, have co-owned Surf Mall for years.
Kazmarck, 48, has been President of Ocean City’s Boardwalk Merchants Association and the Boardwalk representative to the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce for 19 years. He has also been a member of B.A.N.D. (Business and Neighborhood Development) for that time. In addition to Surf Mall, Kazmarck owns and operates the clothing boutique, Birdcage at locations in both Sea Isle City and Stone Harbor.
When asked what he is most proud of during his tenure as president of the BMA, he said definitely how he helped the business community “navigate the COVID-19 pandemic,” when businesses went from open to shuttered, then slowly reopened.
“I am very proud of being a big part of advocating for the business community and allowing us to be open when we could reopen and save our season,” Kazmarck said, of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March of 2020 and impacted businesses through 2022. “We spent a lot of time and effort telling people we were ready to reopen. We did a lot to really make Ocean City a safe place to come to.”
He recalled being adamant that Gov. Phil Murphy should allow the Boardwalk to reopen.
“2020 was definitely the year of finding a way to get open,” Kazmarck said, taking to social media where he started a Facebook page dedicated to the Ocean City Boardwalk to open up discussion on the pandemic and the businesses.
Next to how he handled the pandemic, Kazmarck, noted he feels proud of helping to bring two very core groups together in the business community: the Boardwalk Merchants Association and the Downtown Merchants Association.
“I’m very proud that both business districts work very well together over the years collaborating on events. I think the town is stronger because of it,” Kazmarck said.
He said that he brought the boardwalk and downtown merchants together by creating events that included both sets of merchants: Market Madness, which he created in 2020, puts all of the merchants who wish to participate together in one location for a daylong shopping event at the Music Pier.
In 2008, Kazmarck began Mummers Nights on the boardwalk in cooperation with the city’s Family Nights.
“The economy was bad, and we really needed to pick up the pace to help draw people to Ocean City. People love the Mummers. We needed activities to get people up on the boardwalk.”
Fast forward 17 years, and the nightly summer event is still going strong and attracts throngs of visitors.
Before moving to Ocean City with his family 10 years ago, the Kazmarcks lived in Somers Point, where Kazmarck served on the Somers Point Board of Education as vice president and president. He coached street hockey and field hockey in Somers Point and flag football in Ocean City.
Kazmarck and his wife, Darcy, a retired schoolteacher, works with Wes at their clothing store, Birdcage. They have two children, Liam, 16, a junior at Ocean City High School and Piper, 19, a sophomore at Arizona State.
Outstanding Businesses and Beautification Awards will be announced at a date in the near future.
