Avery Donahue and her grandmother, Judy Pruden, were driving by the Battleford Lions Park in Battleford one day and an idea struck her that the trees in the park should have lights on them.
Avery went to a meeting of Battleford town council to ask for their permission, where she was commended for her initiative and the Lights of Joy project began.
Avery and her grandfather, Tim Pruden, then started the task to get sponsors at $2 a bulb, enough to light 16 trees. They asked the town to sponsor one tree and provide power, which they enthusiastically did.
One of the trees boasts red bows. Battleford Central School raised $300 to sponsor a tree in memory of their schoolmate Braxton Heck. Braxton’s favourite color was red, so red bows were placed on his special tree.
About 200 people came out to enjoy wagon rides, hot chocolate and cookies on the evening of Saturday, Nov. 23 to celebrate the lighting of the trees. This is the second community function put on with help from the Battleford Community Spirit Group. The first one was the street fair put on earlier this year.
The plan is to have the trees lit every year. Avery wanted to make sure she thanked everyone for coming out and all the sponsors who helped light up the trees as well as Discovery Co-op for the donation of cookies, Tim Hortons for their donation of hot chocolate, and Home Hardware for providing the lights at cost.
Shortly after 7 p.m., Avery called out to Fred Gardiner (long-time local electrician) to turn on the power, and at that time Avery’s dream became a reality.
