On any ordinary day, Muncie’s Washington Street bridge is filled with passing cars. This changed as the bridge filled with street-served food, live music and the Muncie community.
The annual Muncie Bridge Dinner was held 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. on the Washington Street Bridge, inviting people to come visit, eat and listen to guest speakers.
“We decided to close down Washington St. Bridge because it’s a historic bridge and it's close to campus,” said Erin Moore, Office of Community Engagement program manager.
The Muncie Bridge dinner was first hosted in September 2017, during which the staff only expected around 200 people to show up. They were surprised to see 500 people make the trip to one of Muncie’s oldest bridges.
“If you love the community that you live in, do things that are visible, that are fun, that are surprising, you can kind of make that love and passion about the community itself,” Moore said.
She said she feared that other bridge dinners were too exclusive since they featured fancy decorations and charged people a fee to get in. She wanted to make the Muncie Bridge Dinner a “place where anybody could come.”
“We decided we wanted something that was more inclusive of the whole community where everybody could come together,” Moore said.
Along the bridge, four long dinner tables decorated with flowers from Foister’s Flowers & Gifts and artwork from Burris Laboratory School students kept the conversation alive as nearly 1,000 people came together.
The middle section of the bridge was used as a stage for The Muncie Central Jazz band, guests were welcome to enjoy the music in lawn chairs that were provided in front of the stage.
On the opposing sides of the bridge, several food trucks served long lines of hungry locals. Food ranged from homestyle cajun food to ice cream served by the cup.
Messages about the community’s love for Muncie were scattered along the bridge as children shared their support drawing with colorful chalk.
The inspiration for the Muncie Bridge Dinner came from Peter Kageyama, author of “For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places” and a guest speaker that spoke passionately about communities and events where people would celebrate the city that they lived in, said Moore.
The Muncie Bridge Dinner allowed for a free Ball State shuttle to take trips to and from the bridge in order to accompany Ball State students.
“If you look around, you have all ages, all ethnic backgrounds, and a lot of diversity,” said Ana Pichardo, Muncie Bridge Dinner volunteer and director of communications for Muncie Community Schools . “It’s just an amazing opportunity to just come together with the community.”
This year, the Muncie Bridge Dinner had nearly 1,000 people on EventBrite share that they would be attending the event.
Brock Wilson, a Muncie resident with his two children, enjoyed his bridge dinner as he shared his enthusiasm about the event.
“One thing that this is really successful at doing is bringing everybody together,” Wilson said. “You see a lot of people here from ‘old Muncie’ and then you see a lot of new faces too, which is a nice mix.”
Moore and other volunteers said they look forward to seeing the Muncie Bridge Dinner continue to grow both in size and in passion.
Contact Chase Martin with comments at cgmartin@bsu.edu.
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