| 11/10/2008 | Email this article • Print this article | | IF YOU GO | What: Holiday Lights in the Park
Where: 1615 Phalen Drive East
When: Daily holiday tours are from 5:30-10 p.m. from Nov. 25-Dec. 31.
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Woodbury church gets one bright idea: holiday lights in Phalen Park
Scott Nichols
news editor
When local missions director Lisa Engh of Woodbury's King of Kings Lutheran Church asked charities this year what donations they needed most, the answer was clear: cash.
Same old answer as the church got every year, yes. But this year, instead of qualifying the question a little, or moving on to the next charity, Engh and the 4,000 members of her church did something different.
They figured out a way to actually get cash to charities. Or so they hope.
Think holiday lights. Lots of them. So many lights - in so many fantastic, wonderful designs and shapes - that people would pay to see them.
But East Siders will be particularly interested in the chosen location for what organizers hope becomes an annual event: Phalen Park.
If similar holiday light displays in other parts of the country are any indication, it could well be a successful fundraiser for the church, which will donate all cash after expenses to Second Harvest Heartland, Union Gospel Mission, the St. Paul Parks Conservatory Foundation, and UnderConstruction, a nonprofit that introduces teens to the construction trades.
For 37 nights starting Nov. 25, families will be able to drive a half-mile course within Phalen Park and view 43 different displays illuminated by LED lights, such as ice castles with snowdrift peaks, soldiers with horns, Santa Claus in a North Pole truck, and a tunnel of lights.
Sightseers will pay a vehicle entrance fee of $8 Sunday through Thursday and $10 on Friday and Saturday or holidays.
More and more towns are getting into holiday light displays as fundraisers, and the nearest city to have such a popular seasonal display - and charge an entry fee for viewers - is in Madison, Wis., and run by the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
IBEW Twin Cities marketing director Vicki Sandberg says her group is looking forward to providing the muscle for this first of what everyone hopes will be an annual event.
"We're really hoping this becomes a family tradition," she says, adding that the sculptures will be built using LED lights, and should cost only $20 a night to run.
And while Madison's event has piped-in music that can be played over one's car stereo, Sandberg says that East Siders are going to have to do without, at least this first year.
But don't fret: there will be music. Both Sandberg and Engh say there will be choirs singing the opening night, when Mayor Chris Coleman is initially scheduled to turn on the lights with the help of the woman who was viciously attacked in Phalen Park this summer. On following nights, they say, carolers should be out along the route.
In case you were thinking of walking, however, you're out of luck. Sandberg says that insurance regulations will prohibit walkers.
That could have been an issue, given that the IBEW and King of Kings church found out that as much as 30 percent of the local populace doesn't possess cars, discovered after meeting with the local District 5 Planning Council.
But while it means that there's more expenses that have to be met to break even, the King of Kings congregation and the IBEW didn't blink twice at the thought of renting some buses. So far, walkers and bikers will be able to hitch a bus from the nearby Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church parking lot at Arcade Street and Larpenteur Avenue, on Dec. 15-16, and 22-23, for $2 a person.
"We're really hoping this becomes a family tradition," Sandberg says.
Scott Nichols can be reached at eastside@lillienews.com or at 651-748-7816.
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