With her collaborative spirit and joyful outlook, Christine Sima brings loads of energy and excitement to her new role as Christian education director for the North Guilford Congregational Church (NGCC).

Christine is also excited to focus her energy on helping NGCC celebrate a fantastic North Guilford Country Fair. Now in its 62nd year, the fair takes place at the historic church at 159 Ledge Hill Road on Saturday, Aug. 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Christine recently spent a year with NGCC as a student intern before starting her new role on July 1. About six years ago, Christine decided to move away from her private-sector work and follow her heart to seminary school, attending Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.

Although she’s a Guilford resident of 11 years, Christine was new to NGCC and is glad she found her connection through her studies.

“Last year, I had to complete a supervised ministry in order to be ordained in the United Church of Christ, and I happened to do that in North Guilford at that church,” says Christine.

Christine assisted with services and church programs and even filled in covering Sunday school a few times for the church’s past Christian education director, Theresa Borchetta. After Borchetta stepped down, NGCC reached out to see if Christine would be interested in applying for the position.

“It was just lovely because they had so much confidence in me!” says Christine. “I have a lot of energy, and I know the kids from last year, so it’s going to be exciting.”

Christine has been prepping the church’s youth spaces with everything from fresh paint to twinkly lights. Christine’s approach to engaging with young ones is just as refreshing and captivating. She plans to bring her special combination of humor and energy to her work with the church’s young parishioners.

Among the volumes of great ideas and approaches Christine has in mind are video parables and celebrating “God in Film” with a camp-out style gathering around an outdoor screen.

“The ideas just kind of fly in from God and the muse,” says Christine, who will be working with youngsters ranging in age from about 3 to about 14. “I am a very collaborative person, so the first thing I want to do is create a covenant with them and ask them what they’re interested in and what they want to do. I want to make sure everyone is interested and nobody gets left behind.”

She’s also looking forward to collaborating with her counterpart at the neighboring church on the hill, St. John’s Episcopal Church, to bring together youth from the area.

“We are working on putting together an interfaith youth group for the kids that are in North Guilford. I sure hope we can expand that and join everyone together,” she says.

To assist NGCC with last year’s North Guilford Country Fair, Christine put together a small stage with dance music geared to get little kids dancing. This year, she’s bringing in her life partner Jeremy Clark and his friend, who both play in an Irish band, to play live music for an hour. Another local group will also contribute live music to the fair.

Christine is also collaborating with a parishioner who has eight chickens to offer a chicken-fueled type of “cow chip” bingo event at the fair with a very imaginative “holy” name.

“I’m also very loud and energetic, and I do have karaoke machine, so most likely I will be walking through the fair with it,” says Christine, who expects that she’ll be announcing the next bingo game or promoting other fair highlights with a bit of audio assistance from the machine.

There is actually quite a lot to talk about. The fair is famous for its fresh peach shortcake with home-made biscuits, freshly whipped cream, and peaches from Bishop’s Orchards. There will also be a plethora of goods for purchase (think homemade sewn and knitted items, home-baked goods, antique tools, furniture, household goods, tag sale, books, jewelry, games, and toys). The fair also has a bounty of beautiful raffle baskets on offer. For kids, there’s rides with Little Toot, which has been towing little carloads of kids at the fair since 1962. Activities for kids also include a bouncy house and a maze, face painting, spin art, and live animals.

Hummel hot dogs, clam chowder, and corn chowder are featured fair food offerings, together with refreshing Foxon Park sodas and snow cones. Fair admission and parking are free.

Funds raised by NGCC from this year’s fair include earmarking 10% of the profits to support families and research of the Vanishing White Matter Families Foundation in its efforts involving a rare neurological disease which damages the brain’s white matter and for which there is no cure and no treatment.

In addition to the work of volunteers and contributions of NGCC staff like Christine, the the North Guilford Country Fair is made possible through generous grant support from The Guilford Foundation and Guilford Savings Bank (GSB).