By Donald Wittkowski
Krista McElroy, Eileen King, Terri Davis, Jane Tresnan and Mary Anne Morrone have known each other since grade school.
“I know that we don’t look that old,” McElroy joked as her friends let out a laugh.
Although McElroy, King and Marrone live in Pennsylvania, Tresnan resides in New Jersey and Davis calls New York home, the five friends make it a point every year to get together for a “Girls Weekend” in Sea Isle City.
They aren’t alone. Girls Weekend, an annual event in Sea Isle held in the spring and fall, has proved to be a big draw for women who want to enjoy some dining, partying and shopping together.
Sorry, guys, you’re supposed to stay home while the girls have fun.
Now in its ninth year, the event has grown in popularity to become one of Sea Isle’s must-see attractions.
Every November, Sea Isle welcomes women to town the week before Thanksgiving for a weekend getaway of shopping, dining, dancing and more. Shopping discounts and drink and meal specials at nearly 40 participating businesses provide an extra incentive for the women.
Girls Weekend began Friday and wraps up on Sunday.
McElroy, King, Davis, Tresnan and Morrone faithfully come to Sea Isle every year for Girls Weekend. They stay at McElroy’s Sea Isle vacation home.
“We have been coming to Girls Weekend even before there was a Girls Weekend,” McElroy said of their Sea Isle getaways each year.
On Saturday afternoon, they were shopping at the downtown stores. McElroy peered inside their shopping bags and began naming some of the items they had bought.
“Let’s see, there’s some jewelry, purses, sweaters …” she said as her voice tailed off.
Girls Weekend allows Sea Isle merchants to cater to women shoppers and generate extra business during a time of year when things usually slow down at the Jersey Shore. The event showcases the business community and has helped establish Sea Isle as a shopping destination heading into the holidays.
“During our shoulder season, we try to build in events to bring people to Sea Isle. This is certainly one of them,” City Councilwoman Mary Tighe said of Girls Weekend.
Tighe was joined by her mother, Marie Tighe, and her friend, Michele Morrissey, while they were enjoying a Girls Weekend of drinks and lunch Saturday afternoon at O’Donnell’s Pour House pub and restaurant on Landis Avenue.
They started the day at a Girls Weekend pajama party at Mayor Leonard Desiderio’s Kix-McNutley’s bar and nightclub. Then they hit the boutiques in Townsends Inlet before heading to the downtown stores for even more shopping.
“We started in the south part of town in Townsends Inlet and headed north,” Tighe said of their shopping spree.
Colorful flags inscribed with the words “Girls Weekend” are flying outside the local businesses participating in the event. O’Donnell’s Pour House is one of them.
The bar and restaurant were packed at O’Donnell’s on Saturday for the lunchtime crowd. Kathy Larkin, the manager of O’Donnell’s, attributed the crowds to the popularity of Girls Weekend.
“It’s great,” Larkin said. “Normally, we wouldn’t even be open at this time of year.”
Larkin praised the Sea Isle City Chamber of Commerce and Revitalization and the event organizers for staging a successful Girls Weekend every year.
Sunsations, a boutique on John F. Kennedy Boulevard, was also enjoying brisk business Saturday generated by Girls Weekend.
“Oh, my God, it’s fabulous,” Sunsations owner Liz Essick exclaimed while waiting on a steady stream of customers. “If it wasn’t for Girls Weekend, it would be a quarter or half of what we have now.”
Friends Kim DeClement, of Hammonton, Bernadette Cottrell, of Egg Harbor Township, and Silvia Sherwin, of Deptford, were strolling around town on Saturday in mermaid-themed pajamas as part of a 75th birthday gag for DeClement’s mother, Brenda Leone, of Sea Isle.
The joke inscribed on their powder-blue PJs proclaimed, “Brenda mermaid it to 75.”
DeClement, Cottrell and Sherwin were not aware that it was Girls Weekend when they first started cavorting around town in their jammies. But they caught on when they noticed the “Girls Weekend” flags and signs and saw so many women toting shopping bags.
“Now, we’re going to join the rest of the women,” DeClement said. “It’s just us girls. We left all the boys home.”
For a complete listing of participating stores and specials for Girls Weekend, visit www.seaislechamber.com.
