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One of Asbury Park’s most famous former residents paid a visit to the city today to provide food and fun in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Talk show host Wendy Williams [pictured above, right] toured the beach front and boardwalk today with Mayor Ed Johnson while taping a segment for her self-titled show. Afterward, she visited the Springwood Center, where about 300 of her fans awaited her arrival. She provided them all with a hot meal, as well as face-painting and balloon animals for the children that were present.

Williams was born in Asbury Park and lived on Central Avenue until she was about five years old. Her family moved to Ocean Township after the race riots that occurred in 1970, according to a video blog she posted today.

Even after her move to Ocean, she spent a lot of time in her original hometown, she said. Her parents both worked at Asbury Park High School, and “there were a lot of cute boys in Asbury growing up,” she said in the video. “It’s where I got my first hair weave, and my childhood church [Second Baptist Church] was there.”

Williams visited the city this afternoon to bring “a little good cheer and a little optimism” to her home, she said. When she arrived at the Springwood Center around 3 p.m., she addressed the crowd.

“I know that our town of Asbury Park has been though a lot, as well as the whole Jersey Shore,” she said. “I just felt it was part of my duty as a [person who grew up at the] Jersey Shore and as a daughter of the town to come and just spread some good cheer, if just for a moment.”

Williams paid for 300 meals from Famous Dave’s Barbecue in Brick Township to the residents. Geoffrey Crosby, the restaurant’s regional catering manager, said each attendee received a full meal and a dessert. Workers from Famous Dave’s donated their service to the event.

Roxanne Talarico, owner of Rockin’ Roxanne’s Party Magic in Manasquan, was hired to make balloon animals and paint children’s faces all afternoon.

“It’s wonderful that she came to Asbury Park to help us,” Talarico said of Williams. “She doesn’t want to take away from the tragedy of it all and say, ‘Let’s have a party.’ She just wants to bring happiness back to Asbury Park.”

Talarico said she was lucky to receive a call from Williams’s people after the hurricane, when cell service was spotty throughout the region.

“I have to say this one time, thank you, Verizon,” she said. “It was fate.”

Stephanie Maruca, a production assistant from the show, said the decision was made to visit Asbury Park right after the hurricane hit. The show tapes in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea. Workers on the show were back to the studio just two days after the storm, on Wednesday, and did a live show without an audience. They’ve been collecting canned goods at every show since, Maruca said.

Although other towns along the Jersey Shore were hit harder than Asbury Park, city residents who had lost power for extended periods — especially the town’s senior citizens — were happy to receive the hot meal from Williams.

Provita Webb, who lives in the Asbury Tower, said she may not be home for up to four weeks because of the recent electrical fire there. Mostly senior citizens live in the 305 apartments there, and all have been evacuated until the electrical system is fixed. Webb is staying with a cousin elsewhere in Asbury Park.

Born in 1943 and having lived in Asbury Park for almost her entire life, she said she never expected to see such destruction on the Jersey Shore.

“It was never like this … But we’re a sturdy crew in the Asbury Tower,” she said. “We’ve got some strong seniors over there. We’re doing what we have to do and we’re all looking forward to the time when we’re back in the building together.”

Julia Accoo, who lives on Elizabeth Avenue, also attended the event and said she used to work with Williams’s mother in the Asbury Park school system.

“Her mother is the most wonderful person you’d ever want to meet on earth,” she said. “A very sweet and wonderful person.”

Accoo learned Williams would be visiting Asbury Park when she announced it on her show on Friday. She promptly called her girlfriends, and they and their daughters shared a table in the Springwood Center awaiting Williams’s arrival this afternoon.

Accoo lost power for about three days after the hurricane. When the lights came back on, she threw out all of her spoiled food and restocked the refrigerator. But then, during a snowstorm just over a week later, she lost power again. Her power just returned yesterday afternoon, and she’s planning on dumping the contents of her fridge and freezer once more. She doesn’t have any edible food in her house, she said, aside from some canned foods given to her by Second Baptist Church. She’s been staying with her sister-in-law at Stephen Manor.

She was happy to see Williams, as well as the city’s churches and the Red Cross, lending a hand.

“It shows that people still need others and that people care for each other,” she said. “That is the most wonderful feeling. They [the churches] kept asking us what we need. They served us here [at Springwood Center]. There wasn’t any place in our city where you could not get a meal … The wonderful part of this disaster was people came together and tried to console each other and meet each other’s needs as much as possible.”

Her friend Rose Johnson, who lives in the Philips Seaview Tower for senior citizens, just had her electricity restored last night after two weeks without power. She, too, praised the organizations that helped feed her and her fellow senior citizens. The Red Cross fed them twice a day, WalMart donated toilet paper, towels, socks, clothes and more, and various churches also donated food, Johnson said.

Williams’s youngest fans at Springwood Center today were a group of middle school students who got to come watch the talk show host speak.

Ma-Eternao Vaughn, 11, said she loves Williams’s show.

“She’s just so interesting,” she said. “I like the segment where she talks about cooking.”

The sixth-grader said she feels inspired by the fact that a woman from her hometown has her own television show. Her friend Marquasia McMillian, 12, said she felt “enthusiastic” about Williams’s visit.

“Some people say that people from Asbury can’t do anything with their lives,” Marquasia said. “But if [Wendy Williams] can do it, we all can do it.”

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For an album full of photos from the event, click here.

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