Camp Run Presbyterian Church, which has about 20 regular members, hosted a quilt show that had more than 75 attendees earlier this year. More than 75 quilts were on display at the show. Camp Run Presbyterian has been hosting a number of events to attract more people from the community to visit the church.

FOMBELL, Beaver County — Located just over the Butler County line, Camp Run Presbyterian Church draws congregants from all over the area and has started hosting more public events to draw in more people.

“I think the community needs to know about a healthy, thriving church these days,” said the Rev. Rosalyn Kummer of Forward Township. “The community needs the church, and the church needs the community.”

The small country church, which has about 20 regular members, hosted a quilt show that had more than 75 attendees. More than 75 quilts were on display at the show.

“I wanted something that we could use to invite the greater community to come to the church to do hospitality,” Kummer said.

In addition to a brunch where people could eat and peruse the fabric creations, Kummer put together a small historical musical to bring to life four families' stories through their heirloom quilts.

Kummer interviewed four longtime church families and interwove their stories with songs performed by two soloists. Helen Pierce, 82, of Lancaster Township, was one of the people featured in the musical.

Pierce has been going to Camp Run Presbyterian since she was a baby. Her parents' and grandmother's families went to the church, and she grew up on a dairy farm just down the road from it.

“We've had real roots in Camp Run Church,” she said. “Back in my mother's and father's time, it was convenient. And you always went to the church that was close in those days.”

When she married, Pierce settled in Lancaster Township, but continued going to her home church.

The church, located at 489 Church Road, Harmony, was organized in 1872 as Camp Run United Presbyterian Church with 50 charter members, Pierce said.

The congregation worshipped in a one-room schoolhouse in a grove of trees until the church building was dedicated in October 1873, she said.

The one-room building has been turned into a still-existent home near the present church, Pierce said.

The church first rested on a foundation of logs and was heated with a potbelly stove, Pierce said, which she still remembers. The basement was excavated in 1949, and an addition with classrooms was added in 1966, she said.

The building has been modernized, but it's still the same structure that housed the original worshippers, Pierce said.

Kummer has led the church for nearly a year and has made it a priority to host events to get the larger community involved in the church, even if they don't join the church.

In addition to the quilt show, the church also hosted a popular wiener roast during the summer and has had different musical entertainment come in through the winter as a way to welcome in the community, said Betty Lambert of Harmony.

Lambert is another longtime member of the church and a church elder who has been going to the church for 84 years. She was baptized at the church, her mother taught Sunday School there and her father was a trustee, she said.

“They're so close-knit and so friendly,” Lambert said of the congregation. “Even when people come in who haven't been there before, they're very welcome.”

Although the congregation is small, Lambert said members still help out with Meals on Wheels in Zelienople, they collect food once a month for the Southwest Butler Food Cupboard and volunteer at a soup kitchen in Beaver Falls. It'll all part of an effort for the church to stay active in the community and

“We've planted the seed to encourage people to come to the church,” Lambert said. “It's just to get closer to God. We just want to show our friendliness to the community.”