By ROBIN STANTON GERROW
BG Independent News
What started out as threatening weather turned into a beautiful evening for food, music, and children’s activities—even if it had to be moved inside.
The Block Party at Courthouse Square organizers had to make last minute decision on Tuesday to implement contingency plans when rained rolled through, but the celebration of the United State’s 250th Anniversary continued in the Wood County Courthouse and Trinity United Methodist Church.
Alex Aspacher, director of communications for Wood County said the event is just one of many in the area celebrating the nation’s birthday.
“The Wood County Commissioners put together a planning committee for America 250 that that includes county and organizational representatives, and representatives of individual communities doing things in their towns,” he said. “They wanted one central committee to get everybody together and not just put on events, but share information, promote events. From the county’s perspective, we wanted to put something together that has information on all these different events that are in different communities in one spot which we did on our county website.”
But, it seemed appropriate for there to be a larger, county-wide celebration as well.
“The group wanted to put on a larger event for the community from the county’s perspective, not just those individual communities, but the whole county,” Aspacher continued. “So, that’s what we’re doing here tonight. We have some children’s games and activities, different treats and food trucks.”
Other activities were tours of the courthouse conducted by county officials and elected leaders, along with snack and drinks.
“The weather put a damper on things a little bit and we had to make some adjustments,” Aspacher said. “We pulled some of those activities inside. We were really looking forward to having the Community Bands concert on the lawn of the courthouse, but we had to make a decision to pull that concert inside to the church. Fortunately, we did have a plan to be able to continue that concert, not just cancel things due to the potential for severe weather. The last thing we would want is to have people out here outside and have a lightning storm come in or a rain start during the concert.”
Abby Hunter, along with her daughter Hallie, enjoyed the break in the weather before she sang the national anthem with the Bowling Green Area Community Bands inside the church.
“I think it’s great,” Hunter said. “I think it’s important that we celebrate this milestone, and that they’re doing something really fun, especially for my daughter.”
