Nearly 50 town and area organizations will participate in the second Antrim Newcomers Club Community Fair on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m., upstairs in the Antrim Town Hall. 

All attendees will be given free raffle tickets for door prizes, which include a $100 Atlas Fireworks gift card, gift baskets and donated items. Prizes will be drawn  every 20 minutes throughout the event.

A children’s craft table, cookies and beverages will be provided free of charge. 

“The goal of the event is to help newcomers and current residents – or ‘not-so-newcomers’ – learn more about all the activities and groups and around Antrim,” said Newcomers co-founder Jenine Rubin. “I think of it as kind of like the activities fair when you get to college. It’s one-stop shopping. There are all these great things you can get involved in.”

The Antrim Newcomers Club was founded in  January 2023 after Rubin, Jennifer Adams and Mary Devine, who were all new to Antrim, met at the Eclectic Book Club at Antrim’s James A. Tuttle Library in December 2022. The first community fair took place in June 2023, with about 30 town organizations taking part.

“It’s amazing what we were able to do last year with no money,” Devine said with a laugh. “At last year’s fair, it was just buzzing all day; we had between 80 to 100 people, including volunteers and attendees. The goal was to make connections between people. So many of our volunteers told us afterwards how incredibly valuable it was not just to meet members of the public, but to meet other volunteers and learn about all the other organizations.”

For last year’s raffle prizes, Adams, Devine and Rubin found items from the Antrim Swap Shop, cleaned them up and created gift baskets. 

“People were so excited about the prizes last year,” Adams said. “But at the end of last year, we completely cleaned out the swap shop to paint it, so we have all new and donated items this year for the raffle.” 

Groups coming to Saturday’s community fair include the Antrim Lions Club, The Grapevine, Avenue A Teen Center, the Antrim Baptist Church Food Pantry, the First Presbyterian Church of Antrim’s Revival Shop,  Cub Scouts, the Antrim Historical Society, Meals on Wheels, the Friends of Tuttle Library, the Great Decisions Book Club, the Eclectic Book Club,  the Antrim Festival of Trees board and the CVTC.

“We were amazed, when we did the research, just how many organizations serve Antrim. We have a list of 82 groups, and we have a possible 50 local organizations coming on Saturday,” Adams said.

The Antrim Planning Board will have an informational table with information about Antrim’s master plan, and a group of residents will be presenting a petition request for a special Town Meeting to facilitate the donation of Antrim’s “Brown Church,” the former Church of Christ, to the Historical Society.

“This is just another great opportunity for people in town to meet, to network, to find out what other organizations are doing, to create synergy,” Rubin said. “Antrim is just a really wonderful town.”