Danville-like Christmas display would require funds, volunteers

Using Ellis Park in Danville as a shining example of how a community can decorate for the holidays, Greencastle Park and Recreation Department officials are looking to ramp up future Christmas activity at Robe-Ann Park.

Park Director Rod Weinschenk and others took a field trip to Danville last month to see the Winterland Light Show firsthand at Ellis Park off U.S. 36.

The lighted loop through the Danville park boasts more than one million light bulbs in a community tradition of at least 20 years.

"We've been talking about maybe we could do something like that," Weinschenk told the Park Board at its January meeting at City Hall.

The Danville display, he said, has a significant investment -- estimated as much as $750,000 -- wrapped up in lights, elaborate decorations and ornaments at the park.

"We could do something certainly on a smaller scale," the park director added. "We could start small and we'd need volunteers."

The Danville event apparently began as an all-volunteer effort and continues with unpaid community members aiding seven or eight park employees.

Set-up alone requires two months of labor, Weinschenk noted, while volunteers nightly staff the entryways and monitor displays while collecting an $8-per-carload fee over four hours each evening once the light show opens.

"They made enough money last year (Christmas 2013)," Weinschenk said, to use $30,000 on a 30-foot Christmas tree display that features holiday music synchronized to blinking snowflake ornaments.

In contrast, this year at Robe-Ann Park, a couple of trees were adorned with Christmas lights and a few ground displays (Santa, Frosty, polar bears and a couple of dinosaurs) were placed near the splash park and the Bloomington Street entrance.

Weinschenk hopes to increase such holiday activity next year and in the future.

"Can it be done?," he asked. "Yes, but it will take a volunteer effort to complete."

Park Board members, while not taking a vote on the matter, encouraged the department's interest in the project, expressing optimism over its potential for greater exposure for the park.

Meanwhile, the Park Board endorsed an addition to Big Walnut Sports Park as Boy Scout Troop 93 Eagle Scout candidate Ethan Boyd, 17, Cloverdale, plans to install a "Little Library" there like the two-feet-wide, 2.5-feet-tall boxes he has put in at the Cloverdale Park and the Reelsville fire station.

The Big Walnut addition will be attached to the shelterhouse near the playground.

A "Little Library," which operates on the take-a-book, leave-a-book method, is already in operation at Robe-Ann Park after its creation by John and Diana LaViolette and has been "very successful," Weinschenk said, noting it has not even been bothered by vandals.

Boyd recently received a $245 grant from the Putnam County Community Foundation to assist his "Little Library" efforts.

The Park Board voted unanimously to allow the project at Big Walnut Sports Park.