Despite the rain, church-sponsored tailgate attracts attendees
The show must go on. And so it was for First United Methodist Church, where Leroy Eddy and his team tried something Friday night they’d never done before, at least not there. They held an indoor community tailgate. This was not the first tailgating event for Eddy, who works with Bethany United in Celina on their events.
Despite rain falling from the skies, he was still happy with how it went.
“I think it was a pretty decent turnout for … as much rain as we had and being inside,” he said. “I”m pretty happy.”
The weather prevented members of the church from setting up a bounce house - something Eddy said was going to be the big draw for children - but there was still plenty to do, including corn hole and oversized Connect Four.
Snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn, lemonade and grilled hot dogs were also available.
And even though the turnout was around 50, he said people he spoke with were thankful for the event.
“They were like, ‘thanks for doing this, we really appreciate it,’” he said.
Eddy especially enjoyed talking to different people and learning people wanted to be out and talking to each other.
Robert Mattraw is from Celina, and after hearing about it he decided to see it (it helped Wapakoneta was playing Celina).
He said the new tailgating partnership in Celina was great, and thanked Eddy and Josh Josh Tissot for putting the tailgate together.
“I think it’s great for the community to come out and for the kids to have some fun,” he said.
Walter Jackson had just arrived as the event was getting ready to wrapup.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “I think that friends, people, kids and fellowship is a good thing.”
“It’s very nice,” visitor Roderera Harrington said. “… the children are enjoying this. I’ve met some lovely people here.”
She wanted this to be an annual event and said having this was a great way for the community to come together.
Eddy hoped to make this a yearly event before the high school football games, maybe two-three times each season. That’s because he still wants to be part of the Celina Community Tailgate, and doing both would be difficult.
Eddy thanked everyone who visited and the volunteers who helped