Claridge fish fry top vote-getter

And the winner of the contest for best fish fry in Westmoreland County is … drumroll, please … the Claridge Volunteer Fire Department in Penn Township.

Those Claridge firefighters were at the top of the Top 10 Fish Fries of Westmoreland County, according to Jason Saunders, president of The Print Shoppe on Route 30, North Huntingdon, which sponsored the contest.

The firefighters from Claridge got more than 21.3% of the more than 2,100 unique online votes, said Saunders. The gang at the Claridge fish fry will get a plaque Friday night from The Print Shoppe designating it as the best of the best when it comes to the popular fish fries held annually on Fridays at numerous churches and fire departments during Lent.

Claridge barely edged out the Norvelt fire department, the 2018 winner, which came in second with 20.3% of the votes. The Madison fire department was a distant third, with 10.6% of the votes.

Those fire departments beat the kitchen crews from two Catholic churches, who have a lifetime of cooking and baking under their aprons. The Partner Parishes of St. John The Baptist in Scottdale and St. Joseph Parish in Everson came in fifth, while St. Agnes Church in North Huntingdon placed eighth.

The contest for the best fish fry in Westmoreland County, which closed on March 29, required voters to mark their “ballot” on The Print Shoppe’s Facebook page. Since the Facebook “polls” closed on March 29, there have been no cries of voter fraud.

One of the fish fry organizers at St. Agnes Church thought the fire companies might have an advantage because they have young members who are more adept at social media.

“That could be true,” Saunders said, “but we’ve tried to coach the churches on the competition.”

“I think the churches have a harder time pushing the competition because of lack of volunteers. They did beat out a lot of the VFDs though,” Saunders noted.

Just like the presidential candidates will battle in primaries next year, the fish frys contest even had a primary season of sorts — nominations for the Top 10 held before the beginning of Lent. The Top 10 were picked in that preliminary contest, but every group that was nominated was listed on a fish fry map The Print Shoppe published, Saunders said.

The Print Shoppe also made T-shirts with a list of the Top 10 nominees, and each nonprofit organization got $5 when a T-shirt buyer designated its fish fry to get the money. The shop donated more than $3,500 to local organizations through the sale of those shirts, Saunders said.

“At the end of day, we just want to promote these nonprofits,” Saunders said. “A lot of them bank on this time of year as their main fundraiser. The competition is just for fun and gets a lot people involved. It’s nice for us to be able to give back a little.”