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Community Corner

Food and Fun's an Annual Tradition at the St. Cecelia's Iselin Fair

Rides, games, and deep-fried pizza are among the many things to check out at the annual Iselin festival.

The St. Cecelia's Iselin Fair, an institution in Iselin for over 70 years, is back again this week.

The fair, featuring a midway, games, food, raffles, bumper cars, inflatables, 50/50s, a DJ, and just about all of the other traditional summer fair components you can think of, kicked off Monday night and runs through Saturday.

"The fair has been put on since the 1930s," said Mary Jane Kress, Pastoral Associate & Cantor for St. Cecelia's and Member-In-Charge of the fair since 2005. "The first pastor held a festival, and there's been an event for St. Celelia's ever since."

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The fair is held at the church and school at Wilus Way ("If you enter it into a GPS, you won't find it," explained Kress, as the street does not techincally exist anymore - the fair is located just off of Route 27 at Oak Tree Road and Auth Street in Iselin). In addition to the typical fair fare (hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, and so on), there's a handful of items unique to St. Cecelia's festival that will make your mouth water - the St. Cecelia's Fried Pizza and St. Cecelia's Crullers.

"The dough is from Santos Bakery in Avenel," said Kress, who's been a parishioner at St. Cecelia's for over ten years. "It's stretched to a personal pizza size, deep fried, and covered in a custom made pizza sauce and sprinkled with parmesan cheese." The result is a deep-fried dish that tastes kind of like a savory zeppoli. The St. Cecelia's Cruller uses the same dough and is coated with granulated sugar, making an excellent sweet yang to the pizza's savory yin.

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The fair also features a clam tent, serving up clams on the half-shell for those looking for a little seafood while they stroll the festival grounds. "We've got 25 years of shucking experience here," joked Chris Lucas as he worked in the booth, pointing out how many years he, Neo Galicia, and Ron Roper had each worked in fair's clam booth.

Parents can have their children fingerprinted and obtain photo IDs for free at the fair's Child Safety tent, a courtesy provided by New York Life. There's vendors on site where one can purchase toys, horns, and other plastic items sure to delight kids and eventually annoy parents, as well as tables set up in support of the Eric Legrand fund and the Golden Knights organization, where children township-wide can register to for football, basketball, and cheerleading, starting at kindergarten age.

Every night of the fair is a bracelet night, where $25 entitles the purchaser to a bracelet good for unlimited rides. "We found it worked best that way," said Kress. "Rather than having people who couldn't come out on the day we decided would be a bracelet night."

The proceeds from the fair have always gone to the church, which was founded in the 1920s by Irish servants and now serves a diverse community, said Kress. In years past, they've used the funds towards building and repairs and bus services, among others. Currently, the money raised by the fair goes to the St. Cecelia School.

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