Local News

Burning Bright: Holiday in the Park sees increase in community volunteers

PARKERSBURG - Holiday in the Park is hosting training sessions in an effort to revive the organization and 31 year old tradition this weekend and on Oct. 31.

Donna Sue, president of Parkersburg Homecoming, said the committee has grown from a "skeleton crew of four to around 50-60 interested individuals," and is holding these training sessions to teach members how to operate and maintain the lights with the help of previous committee member, Bruce Farra.

Sue said, "Coming in here, a lot of us are newbies. ... So coming in as a blank canvas, which sounds great until you see all the pieces, not knowing the exact order."

She said the group intends to have the event open on Nov. 21, later than previous years, "We'd love to have everything there, but even 50% is better than what was going to be here when they were going to dissolve. So anything's better than nothing."

Moving forward they will continue to assess and improve the lights, according to Sue, "that's the joy of being an all-year-round organization where you start right after you take down, maybe to take a week or two to breathe, and then start rebuilding again."

Sue also said she hopes the group can upgrade all of the display lights to LEDs next year, "We would love to have all the displays as LED, but unfortunately you have to look at your budget and what there is time to do. ... It would be nice to have everything up to LED next year, I think that's a better goal. As long as the volunteers stick around and everybody does what they can throughout the months leading up to (next year's event), it shouldn't be a problem."

President of Parkersburg City Council Andrew Borkowski attended the training session on Friday afternoon, afterwards he said, "It's great to see the interest from the community. I think you can tell by being there, it's very labor intensive. So it's going to be a heavy lift this late in the game, but I'm excited and grateful for all the people that are willing to step up. ... Christmas just wouldn't be the same without the lights in the park, in my opinion."

Nancy Wilcox, who was assigned to the committee as a member of City Council in 2008 and has remained part of the group, said the revival of the group was "wonderful. It's what I wanted. This is a really big item for the community. They've always enjoyed it for the last 31 years, and I would hate to see it die."

Wilcox said she hopes for the organization to continue to grow and regain the health it once had.

"I just want it to come back to like it used to be, and I think we've got enough people's attention now, and they realize what it’s going to take. I think it's going to be back up and going again with no problems. ... I'm 76 years old, and I want to get it up good enough that I can hand it over to someone new."

She said, "I just want the Holiday in the Park to be Holiday in the Park. (To have) the lights come up and be big and beautiful like they've always been, and if you stood at the donation booth one night and watched the faces of kids and old people come through there, you know it's worth every minute and every struggle to put it together."

Anyone interested in participating in the Holiday in the Park event can contact Donna Sue at donnaismadinpkb@gmail.com.

Sophie Wheeler can be reached at swheeler@newsandsentinel.com.