Fall Colors at the Cross bringing families together

ALTO PASS Ill. (KBSI) – Orange, yellow and red poking through the trees that bring families together to Southern Illinois to highlight one important thing together.

The trees changing color, sun shining, and people coming together to honor their faith at the Bald Knob Cross of Peace in Alto Pass Illinois. 

One cross standing ground for over 61 years near Shawnee National Park to allow people to come and unwind. 

Jena Guined is the Executive Director at Bald Knob Cross where she has been in charge of hosting Fall Colors at the Cross for the past ten years. She says she enjoys spending her weekend watching families have fun. 

“It’s just a great time to get out and enjoy this beautiful fall day and just make a weekend out of it,” said Guined. 

Guined says she has several events she hosts like Fall Colors at the Cross because it creates a space for people to spend time together.

Guined is impressed with the numbers from this weekend. 

“So, we estimated that we had about 600- 700 people yesterday, and they think that we’ve done close to the same today so I would say somewhere by the end of it will be at about 12 to 1500 people altogether for the weekend.”

Bald Knob is a nonprofit Organization and events like these get their funding from donations. 

They also get help from their Volunteers who have been in this from the beginning because of their family. 

Lenna Reeder has been a volunteer for eight years now and she got involved because of her cousin. 

“We’re volunteering. We come up here every Tuesday afternoon. I’ve been doing this for about eight years. She’s been doing it longer than I have. It never gets tiring.”

Overall, the two cousins love being a big help to a sentimental place where people can meditate and have fun at the same time. 

“It’s a place where people can find peace and be close to the Lord and there’s people that will just come and not just come to the welcome center but go and sit down on one of the benches and sit there for hours.”

Bald Knob is about to celebrate their 89th Easter Sunrise.