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Holiday shoppers zipped in and out of stores Saturday to buy last minute gifts, treats to bring to family gatherings, and even took time out for a carriage ride. Jill and Chris Clark, of Upper Township, their son Connor, 12, and his friend Aiden Leypoldt, 12, strolled along Asbury Avenue to pick up a few things. “We wanted to come to Ocean City to buy all local stuff today,” Jill Clark said. “We stopped at Wards to get some cookies. Now we are heading to 7th Street Surf Shop. They have really good stuff.” Connor is hoping for a Nintendo this Christmas...

Hot pepper jam, blueberry cheddar, fine balsamic vinegars from Italy and olive oils from around the country may not seem to go together. But if you walk into City 2 Shore Gourmet, 709 Asbury Ave. in Ocean City, you will see they make the perfect blend. An eclectic assortment of delicious foods and condiments are just some things that owner, Jackie Dougherty, of Ocean City, offers to her customers. She greets every patron with a warm, welcoming smile, and gives anyone who will try, taste tests of cheese and pimento spreads and other delicious treats, as well as dips of a wide assortment of her balsamic vinegars...

Scott Nuss couldn’t believe it when students converged on him asking for his autograph after he performed a concert. “I was like, ‘You want my autograph? I’m just a kid,’” Nuss explained, while sitting at his Yamaha piano in his West Avenue house in Ocean City on Friday afternoon. That concert was on April 6, 2017, at Perry Hall High School in Maryland, where the 13-year-old pianist, complete with a neck-mounted harmonica, performed renditions of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man,” “My Life,” and “New York State of Mind,” to name a few...

Anthony and Elena Kazoun definitely wrapped all of what Ocean City has to do for the holidays, into one day. And they loved every minute of it. “We went shopping. We got pictures with Santa. We did more shopping, and now we are going on a horse and carriage ride,” Anthony Kazoun said Saturday...

There are 400 children on free lunches in Ocean City schools. So, what happens on the holidays when school is out? Do they still eat nourishing meals, do they go hungry, or eat less healthy? Susie Stauffer had those questions a few years ago. She went to her friends, fellow volunteers, and school officials, to create a plan to provide grocery bags filled with good foods to take children through Christmas break and spring break...

Five years ago, Nelly Rivero and her three sisters-in-law thought owning a business was just a dream. But with hard work, persistence and some coaxing from their husbands, they opened Impeccable Cleaning Services in 2015 in Ocean City. They have built up a solid customer base and in the summer, they get so busy, they sometimes have to turn away customers, Rivero said...

Financial pressures and stress leave little for some to feel upbeat about on the holidays. But with organizations such as Waves of Caring and the Ocean City Ecumenical Council, the worry of not having toys for your children Christmas day, or food on the table, was eased Monday morning. Families entered Ocean City Tabernacle’s Kull Youth Center through the early afternoon to pick up bags of presents from the Waves of Caring toy drive and food store gift cards distributed by the Ecumenical Council...

Keith Cooper got his wish in August, when the curtain went up on the first performance at the Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point after nine years of more drama and suspense in making it happen than in any show ever featured at the theater. “Nine years ago, I was just leaving Broadway,” Cooper, executive director of The Theater Collaborative of South Jersey, said in a recent interview. “I came home from New York to my house in Mays Landing, and some people asked if I could help them save the building.” James Dalfonso, president of the playhouse’s board of directors, was one of those people who called on Cooper...

Anthony and Elena Kazoun definitely wrapped all of what Ocean City has to do for the holidays, into one day. And they loved every minute of it. “We went shopping. We got pictures with Santa. We did more shopping, and now we are going on a horse and carriage ride,” Anthony Kazoun said Saturday...

Jody Levchuk, of Jilly’s T-Shirt Factory, said it isn’t about the shirts, suntan lotions, beach chairs, or all the other merchandise he and his brother Randy Levchuk sell it in their Ocean City Boardwalk store. It’s about giving customers a great experience...