HUNDREDS HELP LIGHT WINTER WONDERLAND DISPLAY
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 -- 11:46 AM
The Marshfield Rotary's Winter Wonderland lights display is set to open on Friday.The number of lights?310,000?is impressive. But perhaps more impressive is the number of volunteers needed to make the event possible.
"It's an amazing number," explains project chairman Al Nystrom. "We believe we had over 800 people involved last year."
But, they actually had to turn down volunteer requests this year because of the huge response.
Hanging the lights, well, that's the easy part. It can be done in a matter of a couple days with a bucket truck, Nystrom says.
The planning and programming is the time-consuming part.
Planning for this year's display started last February. And the computer programming of the lights takes hard work, too.
"We have all these lights controlled by a computer. Computer programming tells the trees when to come on and off, when to fade, when to change colors," Nystrom notes. "It can be set to the beat of the music, so we've had people programming those songs all summer long."
Last year, visitors donated over 30,000 food items. There is no admission charge, but donations are appreciated to help offset the costs of the display.
The Winter Wonderland will be open at Wildwood Park Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through December 16th, and then every day from December 20th through December 30th. The park is open from 5:00PM to 9:00PM.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.