Dozens attend socially-distant movie night

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- The coronavirus pandemic has caused many family fun activities and events to shutdown throughout Michiana.

Many organizations, though, have found different ways to bring fun to the community.

South Bend Venues, Parks and Arts, put on a free outdoor movie night for community members on Thursday.

“We’re having an outdoor movie here at Keller Park just to celebrate the city of South Bend, just to bring everyone together and celebrate our community,” South Bend Venues, Parks and Arts Special Events Coordinator Amanda Parker said.

At Keller Park, that means movies on the big screen!

With some added safety measures in place, including hand sanitizing and washing stations, free face masks, and even marked areas on the lawn to make sure everyone was 6 feet apart.

“As a city entity, we are always very, very cautious of making sure that we are being safe for our community and that we’re providing experiences that can really bring people together but also keep people safe,” Parker said.

Organizer Ashley Parker believes events like this benefit not just community members, but also small businesses.

“Everybody has lost out this summer, we’ve all been missing something and even with our food trucks and bringing them out, we want to be able to provide business for them and be able to provide a fun experience that’s at a low cost too for our community,” Parker said.

Movie goers were happy to get out of the house and enjoy a movie on the big screen, while also feeling safe.

“I’ve been feeling cooped up to be honest,” South Bend local David Guthrie said. “An outdoor space like this is about as safe as I can hope for! Physical health, mental health, it all comes down to community and outdoors and this, and now only that but we need to be getting together and getting together in places where we actually consider the challenges we’re facing and take precautions and model good behavior.”

Another outdoor movie night will take place again on August 16.