A Lloydminster family’s drive to spread the holiday spirit has resulted in almost $30,000 being given to local charities for over seven years.
Almost a decade ago, Jerry Frank decided to turn his house into a Christmas light show after watching a Youtube video. He says this year’s event had a great turn out between November 23 to January 7th with donations raised being the same as previous years.
“Our first year was $1,150 for the very first year we did it. To see it grow to $30,000 as a total is really cool and it says a lot about the community of Lloydminster too. How they come out to support it, be a part of it, make the donations and help us support the charities that we do.”
What started as an event that began with Jerry and his son has now turned into a family event.
“Once we got a bit bigger, we started to recruit and the rest of the family jumped on board and wanted to help. It’s really a family event to put it all on.”
Each year, the Frank family looks to change the display, in the form of lights, set up and/or music in order to switch things up for the community every year. Jerry gets some of his ideas from other light shows such as Candy Cane Lanes in Edmonton.
“If the community wasn’t getting behind it, supporting it and making it a part of their Christmas traditions, I’d be a guy putting up lights for the sake of putting up lights. Because the community is getting behind it inspires me to continue to make it bigger and better.”
This year’s Lights and Sounds of Christmas House raised $3,000 which goes towards Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lloydminster, The Goat’s Christmas Wish and the Gift of Christmas.