PERRY, Ga. — Perry's social calendar is a little thinner this year.
Food Truck Fridays, the Dogwood Festival, and even the Georgia National Fair have all been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they want to bring people together in a safe way next Friday with their first "Grub Crawl."
"The Grub Crawl was kind of a split-second decision to try to bring back some type of normalcy," says Perry's Special Events Manager Anya Turpin.
She says they wanted to support their food truck vendors and get people back in the community safely.
"We thought rather than having 20 food trucks all congregated in one spot and then having thousands of people congregated in one spot, what if we kind of took that event and blew it up."
So here's how it will work.
You can pick up a map at City Hall or the Welcome Center or pull it up on your phone through the city's website.
There are 11 locations spread throughout the city.
You can start at the Perry Arts Center, Legacy Park, Creekwood Park, and Splash Pad, or really anywhere in between to find trucks with barbecue, pretzels or smoothies.
The vendors will be wearing masks and the city will provide hand sanitizing stations.
Turpin urges everyone to follow CDC guidelines so they can bring this event back again.
"We think it's really important that we keep a sense of community," she says. "Perry is where Georgia comes together and we want to get together again."
She says events like this help Perry in so many ways.
"We really want to make a name for ourselves and these events help us to not only support the people who choose to live here, but also a great opportunity to show off our historic downtown, our wonderful restaurants and businesses and our parks to people who might be future residents or prospects for business," She says. "It’s just a great opportunity for economic development and community growth."
The Grub Crawl is next Friday, September 18th from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
For more information, visit Perry's website here.