San Jon churches host community block party

link First Baptist Church volunteers cook hot dogs for the San Jon block party.

QCS Staff writer

Even for a small community like San Jon, getting together is a rare occasion. Seeing that the only time the residents of San Jon gather is at funerals, the preacher at the San Jon First Baptist Church wanted to change that.

Michael Erwin worked with the other area churches in San Jon to host a block party for children and adults to gather and have fun.

For the last three years the block party has been on Halloween, but this year they had to postpone a week and held it on Thursday.

“We wanted to show the community that the churches love them,” Erwin said.

More than 70 people gathered at the parking lot of San Jon Schools where three bouncy houses were set up and door prizes were given out.

“I’m having a lot of fun,” said Robyn Evans, 12, “My favorite bouncy house is the obstacle course.”

Many children like Robyn spent the whole event play on the bouncy houses, of which one was an obstacle course, one was a tunnel and the other was a castle.

The churches also provided free hot dogs, drinks, popcorn and candy. Erwin, who was working the grill, said he bought 160 hot dogs and he had them all cooked by the end of the night.

Many went for seconds or thirds on the hot dogs, which none of the church volunteers minded handing out.

After the hotdogs were cooked and the children were done playing, a bonfire was lit at the baseball field. Free hot chocolate was served and chairs were set up around the fire.

The night also brought awareness to San Jon’s next event, a community-wide revival at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 16 at the San Jon Community Center.

“All the churches are involved in this revival and we hope the community will be involved as well,” Erwin said.