GUERNSEY – The Guernsey Community Block Party provided people with tournaments, food, water games, entertainment and a few people even walked away with a few new tattoos.

The party has been a very anticipated event in the town for the past six years and each year there has been a different location, utilizing resident’s outdoor space to host the party. The idea is to keep a hometown family atmosphere with backyard parties and a chance to get to know your neighbors.

According to Wikipedia, A block party or street party is a party in which many members of a single community congregate, either to observe an event of some importance or simply for mutual enjoyment. The name comes from the form of the party, which often involves closing an entire city block to vehicle traffic. Many times, there will be a celebration in the form of playing music and dance and activities like pony rides, inflatable slides, popcorn machines and barbecues.

As a form of activism, street parties are festive and/or artistic efforts to reclaim roadways as public space by large groups of people. They were made known in Western Europe and North America by the actions of Reclaim the Streets, a widespread “dis-organization” dedicated to reclaiming public space from automobiles and consumerism.

The block party in Guernsey this year was a celebration in the midst of COVID. A coming together of community that had been in a type of quarantine for months. Actual planning for this year’s party was done under the black flag of quarantine two months ago.

Kellie Augustyn, Guernsey city councilman who initiated the block party six years ago, said, “I started it in my house with a couple of the people here today. We were all within a block of each other. It all started at 10 a.m. and you should have seen this backyard, people setting up tents, bringing in grills, setting up the cornhole boards. We had 30 people helping to make this happen.”

The party, true to its reputation for having a lot of people, had over 200 people that filled the backyard, spilled into the front yard and even to the street just north of the Guernsey-Sunrise High School football field. 

Local contractor and Guernsey resident, Brad Cook volunteered his vintage nineteenth-century home and outdoor space this year for the party. Not only has it become a successful annual block party, but people are now coming from other states.

“I donated the space because this house has been here longer than all of us and that’s what it was built for,” Cook said. “We did it at Kellie’s house for many years and then we just decided to combine the parties and have it here in one location. This is a big thing. I’ve got friends who have come as far as from California to be here as well as people from Kentucky, Iowa and Colorado that we know of.”

All the tents and tables were donated, and the invitation that went out via social media instructed people to bring their own chairs and beverages for their family. People could also bring food which was in addition to the hot dogs, sausage and pork that was purchased by the organizers.

Many people from Guernsey donated time and talents to set up things including Craig Frederick who is the president of the Guernsey Economic Development Organization. He brought, set up and ran the cornhole tournament at this year’s party.

“First State Bank brought in the grill,” Augustyn said. “And in addition, we had several donations come in from $50 to $100 for the meat and other supplies. Once again, this community is just special and we love coming together like this. We didn’t even ask for donations. People just started coming up and donating.”

In addition to the entertainment provided by Chris Whitten and Chase Mangus who brought their sound system and played for the entire five-hour event and the cornhole tournament, the organizers set up kiddie pools and water slides for the kids. There was even a licensed tattoo artist set up donating her art for tips.

A warm, starry summer night donated by Mother Nature added the environment, the organizers provided a venue and the activities and the community provided the fellowship. For a small town such as Guernsey, nothing about the night was small. Some said it was an “over-the-top” party and others likened it to a block party on steroids.