100 years later… Christ Episcopal Church throws centennial street fair

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – It’s a blast from the past facilitated by Christ Episcopal Church – their second street fair.

“It was a fundraiser to build a building that no longer exists here on 12th Avenue. They did it once. They raised a bunch of money. They built the building, and they never did it again. But the flier for it has hung up in the church for decades, and so we knew that the date was coming up for the 100th anniversary. And the other priest on staff, Mother Becca, said, ‘We’ve got to do a centennial celebration.’ And so the plan started about a year ago to pull this all together,” said Steve Pankey, a rector for Christ Episcopal Church.

Coincidentally, Duncan Hines Days was pretty close to the street fair’s anniversary, and through some surprising connections, they became part of the line up.

“So we started to see the advertisements for Duncan Hines days about three or four months ago, and we realized it was within two weeks of the 100th anniversary. And Duncan Hines was a member of Christ church. We have a chapel named after him. and so we thought it made a ton of sense to tie it in with Duncan Hines days.”

It’s a refreshing sight in Pankey’s eyes – when asked what he hopes people feel after the end of the fair, he said, “I think just a celebration of community and being together. It’s been a really challenging three years for this community and just the opportunity to have fellowship and enjoy one of those company and see neighbors maybe you haven’t seen in a long time. That’s what we hope just people will connect with one another.”