Sidewalk Sale this weekend

WARWICK — The annual “Sidewalk Sale,” Warwick’s traditional and popular downtown business district event, started today, Friday, July 12, and will continue throughout this weekend until Sunday, July 14.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., participating merchants, restaurants and additional area vendors will display their merchandise along Warwick’s Main Street as well as Railroad Avenue.

Many of the shops will also be running sales and other promotions on overstocked and end-of-season items inside and outside their stores.

And on Saturday evening at 7 p.m., the 18-piece New York Swing Exchange will perform at Lewis Park. The concert is free but please bring your own chair.

This year Tim Mullally, co-owner of Style Counsel and co-chair of the event, has offered Literacy Orange an opportunity to hold a used book sale on Railroad Green on Saturday and Sunday during the Sidewalk Sale.

Literacy Orange is a not-for-profit agency, based in Middletown, dedicated to raising the literacy rate in the community through one-to-one or small group adult tutoring.

To help support Literacy Orange, there will be two pie-eating contests, one for adults and another for an under 12 age group.

The contests, sponsored by Noble Pies, 121 Route 94 South in Warwick, will be held Saturday on Railroad Green. Registration is at 11:30 a.m. and the event begins at noon.

Both groups will be allowed 10 minutes to wolf down their pies, but if previous contests are any indication, the winner will most likely complete the task in less than four minutes.

The winners of each division will be entitled to one free pie per month at Noble Pies for three months. And besides the contest pie, everyone who enters will also receive a coupon for a free coffee at Noble Pies Café, 38 Main St., in the Village of Warwick.

The pie eating contest entrance fee is $5 for adults and $2 for those under 12. All proceeds will go to Literacy Orange.

“We’re all anxious to reduce inventories before the Fall season,” said Mullally. “And there will be lots of bargains both outside and inside the shops.”