BRIELLE — The 50th annual Brielle Day is set to take place on Saturday, Sept. 9 in Brielle Park from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Annually, community members from the area come out to shop over 180 handmade craft vendors, enjoy live music, fire truck rides, a beer garden and food made fresh to order, courtesy of an exhaustive effort from a number of town organizations and departments.
The police, fire, department of public works, local churches, nonprofit organizations and the recreation department, all join the Woman’s Club of Brielle in making it a successful long-standing event.
Each year the Brielle Day Craft Fair is sponsored by the Woman’s Club of Brielle. The club organizes the craft vendors, in addition to their tea garden table that will serve fresh cookies, iced tea and lemonade to event goers.
The craft fair attracts vendors from all over the tri-state area to sell handcrafted goods, according tothewomansclubofbrielle.org.
“Proceeds go to the woman’s club scholarships, other charitable organizations that the woman’s club is involved in and some operating expenses,” said Cathy Cafone, member of the Brielle Woman’s Club and Brielle Day volunteer.
At 5 a.m. on the morning of Brielle Day, members of the Woman’s Club start by directing cars into the parking lot and vendors into spaces, by afternoon they’re lending a helping hand to other areas of the event.
The night before Brielle Day, the recreation department hosts their Brielle Day Bash kids race for children ages two to ten at Brielle Park. The morning of, participants gear up for the Brielle 10K race with medals awarded at the end for winners, along with a raffle prizes for the runners.
“We try to do bib check in prior to, and we do it that Friday night too, so that if people need to pick up their race bibs they can do that prior to the race, but there’s still some people that come from out of town so they would need to do it in the morning,” said Mary Beth Wheeler, director of the recreation department.
The Brielle Fire Department will host their beer garden sponsored by Drew Cowley, from Cowley’s Pest Services as well as a runners happy hour, sponsored by the Pig & Parrot for those participating in the Brielle Day 10K race. The fire department also serves fresh roast beef and other sandwiches courtesy of Joe Leone’s Italian Specialties, as well as hosting fire truck rides for children.
