Angola by the Bay hosts annual craft show

Angola by the Bay’s Craft Fair marked 50 years July 19.

This year, the craft show featured 135 vendors, showcasing mostly handmade items. Hundreds of visitors come each July to peruse unique merchandise like furniture, lawn ornaments, clothing, bath and body goods, jewelry, fishing equipment, food products, toys, kitchenware, locally authored books, plants, artwork and a variety of other items. 

To celebrate half a century of the craft fair, this year’s event featured a special Spin it to Win it prize wheel. All proceeds will be split evenly between the Cape Henlopen Food Basket and the Community Resource Center. 

“With the things that are going on currently with food banks losing some of their monies and donations, we just figured that would be a really good place to put our money,” said Sea Gals Chair Deb Cebula. 

The Angola by the Bay Craft Fair is sponsored annually by the Sea Gals, a social and philanthropic club made up of 89 female residents who raise money to support charities and local nonprofit groups, and improve communal areas in the neighborhood. Charities include Pathways to Success, the Boys & Girls Club, veterans’ groups and local food pantries. 

The Sea Gals also hold an annual mahjong tournament in May and two yard sales each year. The members give to food banks each month, provide an annual scholarship to a neighborhood resident and make donations to 10 to 15 local charities in December. 

“The women’s club is a philanthropic group,” said Sea Gals member and former President Judy Kane. “It’s meant for fellowship, it’s meant for socialization, but it’s meant for giving back.”

As leader of the craft fair – the Sea Gals’ largest annual event – Cebula is responsible for registering, organizing and communicating with vendors. She also coordinates volunteers to assist with the fair and oversees a publicity committee to spread the word to local social media platforms. 

Cebula joined the Sea Gals when she bought property in Angola by the Bay in 2017, and later became a full-time resident in 2020. 

“It was the best thing we ever did,” Cebula said. “I was really looking forward to a community that had different groups we could join, whatever your interest level is.”

She was the co-chair her first year, and has been chair for five years since then. Cebula is also part of the Wharf Rats, a boaters’ group, and the Blue Hens, a smaller women’s club. 

Up until a couple of years ago, the craft fair featured about 100 vendors. Since Cebula has taken the helm, she has been able to utilize the grove’s available space to fit additional vendors, even though the grounds have not expanded. 

“Within the past couple of years, I have had trouble telling them no,” Cebula said. “So then I got together with some people, and we decided that we could add some spaces. That’s what we’ve done to try to get as many vendors.”

The application for the event went out in February, and vendor spots were sold out within only a few weeks. There were still 18 vendors on the waiting list that could not be squeezed in. 

Before the 2025 event, Cebula said she hoped to attract as many guests as last year.

“I have never seen so many visitors. They were parked down the road throughout the whole neighborhood, just as far as I could see,” Cebula said. “My two gentlemen from the men’s group, which is the Owls, they usually park from 6 to 9 [a.m.] just for the vendors. They ended up spending the whole day helping customers find a place to park as well. So I’m hoping to see that again this year.”

The Owls assist the Sea Gals by managing parking. They also operate a concession stand with hot dogs and beverages. 

The Sea Gals group was founded in 1975 by Lynn Jankus, one of the original homeowners in the Angola by the Bay community. Jankus also founded the craft fair the same year. 

Kane, a property owner in the neighborhood since 1983 and full-time resident since 1990, said she’s seen the event grow very positively over the years. 

Kane was first brought to the fair as a shopper, but has been an early-rising registration volunteer for more than a dozen years. She also used to sell hats and T-shirts for her 501(c)(3) organization, Just Us Cat and Kitten Rescue. 

She said vendors used to come in by their lonesome with one car. Now, they typically come in as a team with one or multiple large vans or trucks. The event also used to be cash and carry, but now visitors buy items using credit cards and Venmo as alternate forms of payment. 

But the most noticeable change has been the products sold by a larger quantity of vendors hailing from across the Mid-Atlantic region. 

“The diversity and the number of items that are offered now have changed,” Kane said. 

Kane also enjoys the camaraderie the craft fair promotes, allowing her to interact with other creative residents in a new way.

“You get to know your neighbors in a different way, because you get to see the talents that they have that you didn’t even know that they had,” Kane said.