The Planning Committee working on the big celebration in November that will surround the departure of the Capitol Christmas Tree to Washington D.C. needs local volunteers to help put the event together.
Committee members have been meeting every couple of weeks for the last couple of months to work out the basics for the parade and the community celebration that will follow the arrival of the tree in Sweet Home.
Its scope of concern includes decorations along Main Street, local parks, entertainment and food, and the parade itself, said Susan Coleman, a City Council member and Chamber of Commerce staffer who has volunteered to chair the event.
The mix of city and U.S. Forest Service staffers and private citizens involved includes Jennifer Anderson, Connie DeBusshere, Stefanie Gatchell, Diane Gerson, Nancy Shadomy, Greg Springman, Miriam Swanson, Dave Trask and Dominic Valloni.
“We’re going to need a lot of volunteers,” Coleman said.
Early on, the community has largely focused on planning decorations for Main Street and Clover Park, finding funding for the events, marketing and preliminary discussions of the celebration event that will be held Friday, Nov. 9, including and following the parade in which the tree passes through downtown before heading the next day to the Veterans Parade in Albany on the first leg of its journey on a flatbed truck to Washington D.C.
Funding is still needed and sponsorships will be available, Coleman said. Anyone interested in contributing can do so through the Sweet Home Beautification Committee.
“We first tackled the fact that Sweet Home’s Christmas décor was worn out and tired,” Coleman said. “People mentioned on Facebook last year that we didn’t have that much décor.”
She said “multiple grants” have been sought to replace the banners that will hang along Main Street.
“We’ve decided on those things and we are in the process of purchasing those,” she said.
Also, planners want to decorate the buildings along Main Street with uniform white lighting and they’re working on ways to provide that to businesses and owners that need help.
Coleman noted that the decorations will need to go up much earlier than normal, the weekend after Halloween, to be exact, to be ready for the Nov. 9 event. The committee will be seeking volunteers to help with putting up decorations along Main Street and in Clover Park. She said they plan to work with the Chamber of Commerce to coordinate that effort and provide help to building owners as necessary.
Also, the approximately 100 4×8-foot Christmas cards painted by local artists that are displayed around town each holiday season will need to go up early, she said.
“We want to get those in place the Saturday before,” Coleman said. “It’s all very early, I know, right after Halloween. But we get this privilege, so that means we need to be ready early.”
Also in the works are plans for the evening parade, which will run west on Main Street and back along Long, where the truck bearing the tree will be parked in front of the high school and local participants will have an opportunity to sign a banner that will wrap part of the truck bed and will be signed at every stop across the nation.
Volunteers are needed to help plan that event, as well as entertainment for a large celebration to follow the parade, probably indoors due to weather, she said. Organizers are seeking “recognizable local talent” – a musician or act to perform holiday standards.
“We need people to staff things,” Coleman said. “People need to be ready early. They need to be excited about the tree coming to town and the celebration we’re going to have. It’s going to be a lot of fun to take part in.”
For more information, contact Coleman at [email protected].