TOMS RIVER - For more than 50 years, Barbara Carlino has been giving neighborhood kids Skittles and letting families swim in her pool.

The woman, who turned 100 on Tuesday, is like family to the Messenger Street neighborhood near downtown Toms River.

The neighborhood has thrown Carlino a birthday party on New Year's Day every year since she turned 90 in 2009. They see her as family — as the neighborhood grandmother, they say.

"I can't think of any other neighborhood that has an icon like Barbara for us to look up to," neighbor Bob Tormollan said during a toast to Carlino on Tuesday. "You are truly one in a million. You don't know how much you mean to everyone."

Carlino, neighbors say, is responsible for the tight-knit neighborhood family that's developed over the years. They throw driveway pizza parties, have an annual outdoor Super Bowl party, go Christmas caroling together and even have "house crawls," similar to a bar crawl.

"There are 50 houses, and everyone is just family," said Ryan Kapp, who grew up in the neighborhood. "You can just walk into anyone's house. It's just always been like that."

Kapp, 28, said when he was growing up, all the kids in the neighborhood would stop by Carlino's once a day for their spoon-full of Skittles candy that came out of a dispenser. Friends of neighborhood kids called her the Skittle lady. But to everyone else, she was family.

"Everybody in the summer goes to her pool," Kapp said. "Her house is in the center of the neighborhood, and everything just kind of revolves around her."

Next door neighbor Joe Erickson hosted the party at his home, which also happens to be the house Carlino grew up and was married in.

Carlino was a longtime member of the Ocean County Historical Society and has a wealth of knowledge about the history of Toms River, Erickson said. He said she still has the mind of a steel trap.

"I love my neighbors," Carlino, with tears in her eyes, told the Asbury Park Press at her birthday party. "They're so good to me. Since I've gotten older, they keep an eye on me and take me somewhere if I need it."

Carlino, who no longer drives and doesn't have family in the area, is grateful to have such wonderful neighbors, she said.

"A lot of my friends have passed away," she said. "My neighbors take care of me."

Neighbor Dana DeRome said Carlino and the entire neighborhood are "extremely close," and everyone rallies to help her if she needs something.

"Everybody in the neighborhood knows her," Erickson said. "She's like the cornerstone of the neighborhood."

Kala Kachmar: @NewsQuip; 732-643-4061; kkachmar@gannettnj.com