Looking for ways to mark Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day while giving back? Our events calendar includes opportunities to serve your community, from blood drives to volunteer programs for kids and adults. From Tuesday through Friday, you’ll also find trivia nights, comedy shows, and live music across Rahway, Woodbridge, Edison, Highland Park, Metuchen, and New Brunswick.

Over the weekend, UCPAC in Rahway still has affordable tickets available for Winnie the Pooh and Don’t Tell Comedy. Edison’s New Jersey Convention & Exposition Center hosts a weekend-long fly-fishing show, while the Avenel Performing Arts Center presents The Invisible Boy, a thoughtful play about kindness that resonates with both children and adults.

Check out our full events calendar for everything happening around Central Jersey. And as always, if you have a community event you’d like listed, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Tensions flared at a recent Rahway City Council meeting, and residents were also confronted with troubling details surrounding the resignation of a principal at Madison Elementary School. Both developments raised serious questions about transparency, oversight, and how decisions affecting the community are communicated to the public.

The Central Jerseyan was the first outlet to report the breaking news, reinforcing why independent, on-the-ground local journalism matters. We show up when issues are unfolding, report beyond normal news hours, and focus on accountability at City Hall and in local institutions. Our goal is simple: to give residents verified information they can trust, without filtering it through social media algorithms or political spin.

On a brighter note, I was glad to meet many of you at the Freedom Games, which highlighted the talent, dedication, and sportsmanship of Rahway’s high school athletes. Being able to cover moments like these—where our community comes together to celebrate young people and their accomplishments—is one of the most rewarding parts of this work, and a reminder of the strength and promise within our neighborhoods.

January is National Blood Donor Month, and volunteers age 16 and older are urgently needed. Earlier this month, the New York Blood Center—which also serves New Jersey—declared a blood emergency, citing holiday disruptions, severe winter weather, canceled blood drives, and seasonal illnesses as key factors behind a sharp drop in donations. As a result, more than 200 hospitals across the tri-state area are operating with less than a two-day supply of blood.

You can make a direct difference for your neighbors—one donated pint can help save up to three lives. If you’re able, you can find a nearby blood donation location here and help ease this critical shortage.

If you’ve already hit the Rahway Soup Stroll downtown spots, use one of the final two Saturdays as a “go a little out of your way” week. Several participating restaurants are located outside the downtown core, and this is their moment.

Hop in the car, try a new neighborhood spot, enjoy a free bowl of soup, and give some extra love to local businesses that don’t always get the same foot traffic. It’s one of the easiest (and tastiest) ways to support the wider Rahway community.

Outlier Soup Stroll stops include:

Free soup for you. Real support for local restaurants. That’s a win-win worth making time for.

Want to advertise with us or shout out a local business? Contact us here ➝ 

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This week's trivia: Which New Jersey cities did Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visit on March 27, 1968, as part of his Poor People’s Campaign? Hint: There are three.

Answer to last week’s trivia:  Yep - you guessed it - the Dancing Grinch was the fake AI video. 

Here’s the weather for the upcoming week.

🌤️ Monday, January 19: Bonus MLK Day prediction: partly sunny for the holiday; staying cold — temperatures range from 19°F to 31°F.

☀️ Tuesday, January 20: Bright and sunny, but significantly colder — temperatures range from 12°F to 23°F.

☁️ Wednesday, January 21: Mostly cloudy and remaining quite chilly — temperatures range around  30°F.

☁️ Thursday, January 22: Cloudy and a bit milder in the afternoon — temperatures range from 19°F to 37°F.

🌤️Friday, January 23: Partly sunny and turning colder again — temperatures around 25°F.

❄️ Saturday, January 24: Big guess on this one — will it be sunny? Will it be snow? Contradicting predictions with estimates of temperatures ranging from 11°F to 30°F.

🌤️ Sunday, January 25: Partly sunny but crisp and cold — temperatures range from 16°F to 25°F.

As always, you can see even more events on The Central Jerseyan website. See the full events calendar ➝ 

Have an event you’d like included in this newsletter or a tip for a local news story? You can reply to this newsletter or contact me here ➝ 

Have a great week!