By TERESA DOWLING Assistant Editor
The most wonderful time of the year came early to St. Marys with the second annual Miracle on Spring Street drawing a large crowd ready to celebrate Christmas and the end of 2020. A joint effort between St. Marys FFA and St. Marys Area Resource Team (SMART) welcomed people to the downtown area on Saturday to participate in socially distant holi
day activities that allowed the community to come together while still remaining safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was amazing,” said co-organizer and Memorial High School sophomore Jetta Van Gundy. “There was so much excitement in the air and everyone was just enjoying being out together.”
“My heart is so full right now,” MHS senior and Mir
acle on Spring Street creator Lucy Spencer said. “That’s all I can feel — just pure joy.
that joy was shared by everyone who stopped out at the two-hour event.
Starting at 4 p.m., businesses up and down Spring Street were holding events for the youngsters of the city such as making reindeer food at Miami & Erie Trading Co., writing letters to Santa at Effie’s Boutique, visiting with Christmas characters at Hudson’s Jew
elers and Cisco Realty and enjoying a hot chocolate station at Neck and Back Pain Relief Center.
Businesses were told to expect a maximum of 200 guests throughout the event and that number was at least met, if not exceeded.
“Plus One Professionals ran out of their pinecone ornaments and they had enough for 100 of them,” Van Gundy explained.
Spencer noted that Laura
Yelton’s State Farm office was handing out Christmas snacks and gave away 175 treat bags.
“And those only went to the kids,” she added.
Throughout the first hour, hay rides were offered courtesy of Ron Fischer that took riders around the area surrounding Memorial Park while Christmas stories were read by guest readers at the park’s gazebo.
As darkness settled on St. Marys, everyone was invited to the area surrounding the gazebo where St. Marys Primary School Principal Sue Sherman read “The Elf on the Shelf” to kick off a scavenger hunt around the park before everyone gathered one more time for the grand finale.
MHS teacher Mike Reams explained the true meaning of Christmas, reading the biblical Christmas story before MHS alumni Howie Spencer led a candlelit singing of Silent Night. The crowd then counted down to the lighting of Memorial Park.
“With COVID and all the stuff going on this year, it was good to have everyone together for a moment of unity,” Van Gundy said. “That’s the point of this project.”
That unity and joy have made Miracle on Spring Street a successful event that has already endured its first year — which can make or break an annual event — and a global pandemic in its second year.
“I think that says a lot about the amazing community we live in,” said Spencer. “The businesses didn’t have to do this but they were just as excited to have this again as we were. We couldn’t have a successful event without the businesses and without the support from the community.”