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Austintown church hosts community celebration
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Julia Liddle (left) and Isabella Beight fluttered all the way from Poland to the Celebrate Summer event. They proudly modeled their butterfly face paint.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The ladies of Bee's Beauties line dancing group are members of Presbyterian Churches around the area. The group gathered at the July 11 Celebrate Summer event to chat and dance to some of their favorite line dancing tunes.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Since her cotton candy was free, Kathleen Faloon decided to get creative with hers and make a silly cotton candy mustache.
By SARAH FOOR
When Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Austintown plans to have fun, it is never a private affair.
For the last seven years, the church has welcomed its Raccoon Road community to the facility for summertime fun. The church’s seventh “Celebrate Summer” party on July 11 offered church members the chance to say hello to old friends and welcome new friends with open arms.
“We’re a very active, busy church, and we think that it is important that our neighbors understand what we’re about and how we’re part of this community,” explained Sandy Sullivan, who is a member of the event’s organizing committee.
The church sits among a long line of apartment complexes on Raccoon Road and the organizing committee knocked on hundreds of doors to welcome their neighbors to their summer bash.
“It’s all about introducing ourselves to our neighbors, and vice-versa. We all have stories to share,” Sullivan noted.
For the church’s congregation and their new friends, the church provided Handel’s ice cream, popcorn, cotton candy and hot dogs free of charge. A free carnival was provided for community kids and they enjoyed an inflatable slide, cornhole, face painting, limbo, ball toss and a ring toss game.
A DJ played summer tunes for the crowd, which brought everyone to the dance floor from toddler movers and shakers to a local senior line dancing group.
“It’s a great tradition and it’s really opened up our community. It’s definitely here to stay,” shared Sullivan.