Berwyn Day Celebrates Community's Tight Knit Nature

Berwyn has always stood out a bit from the rest of College Park – it has the strongest civic association in the city, an active neighborhood watch and even its own newspaper, the Berwyn News, which is published 10 months a year and distributed by hand to every house and business in the community.

So it only makes sense that it should have its own day as well. Berwyn Day, which will be held on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Berwyn Neighborhood Playground, has been a community tradition since around 1890, when Berwyn was a town of its own. It was first held at the playground in 1973 and has been a social mainstay for Berwyn residents and their families ever since.

In spite of its diverse makeup – elderly retirees and students often live side by side – Berywn remains a tight knit community. Sandy Tyler, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than thirty years, attributes Berwyn's cohesiveness to the overall desire of the residents there to be involved and help one another out.

"It feels very small townish," she said. "It's even a little bit old fashioned small-town. It just makes you feel like you want to be involved in it."

Berwyn Day is sponsored and planned by the Berwyn Civic Association, as well as other volunteers from the community. Tyler is in charge of the bake sale, though activities range from a moon bounce for children, an arts and crafts table, plant and gardening exhibit, a BBQ and plenty more. In keeping with Berwyn's old-fashioned nature, kids can also enjoy gunnysack races and an egg toss in between helpings of cotton candy.

Bob Catlin, City Councilman for District 2 and resident of Berwyn for over 20 years, said Berwyn Day typically draws crowds of around 150 people, weather depending. In spite of its significant turnout, Catlin hypothesizes that the event used to be even bigger back when Berwyn was a hub for towns from miles around, due to being on a trolley line (now the hiker-biker trail) as well as adjacent to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad stop.

It may have lost its place as central hub, but Berwyn residents agree that it remains a charming place to live. Kevin Young, the president of the Berwyn Civic Association, says that the community's roots as an independent town give it much of the character it has today.

"It's retained much of its small town feel," he said. "There are many generations of families who live here."

As a result, residents of Berwyn don't feel pressured to make their event overblown or particularly extravagant.

"It's a bit like a fair," Tyler said. "Except we won't have any pets being judged or anything like that."