Light Up Lenoir - Patriotic Christmas Tree First Prize Winner
Dear parents and students,
Thanks for the incredible support that you showed on Friday.
WE GOT 1ST PRIZE WITH THE PATRIOTIC THEME!!!
The American Legion came to our school and followed us to Downtown Lenoir to helps us with the decoration of the tree, remember to thank them if you see them.
It was awesome to see parents, students, faculty, veterans and even strangers getting together and working on making this tree a wonderful creation.
THANKS!
Please read the following article from News Topic
Students light up downtown Lenoir
LAURA NEAL
lneal@newstopic.net
Nov 22,2008
Rosy cheeked children shuffled up and down the sidewalks of Lenoir Friday as they decorated for the third annual Light Up Lenoir event sponsored by the Lenoir Uptown Business Association.
Though not yet officially winter, a chill was in the air, and bundled up in winter coats, scarves, earmuffs and gloves, children worked hard to place special ornaments that they made on several Christmas trees.
This year approximately 70 classrooms participated, from preschoolers to high schoolers, representing almost every school in the county, said Ben Willis, co-owner of Hogwaller Outfitters and a member of the Lenoir Uptown Business Association.
The three main themes for the Christmas trees are, "going green," "local heritage" and "patriotic."
Each class that participates in the program must decorate its tree with one of the themes in mind, and the different classes compete against each other for a cash prize.
"We're going to give away $100 to the top tree in each category," Willis said.
However, most of the time the students with the winning trees decide to give the money back to the community through donating it to local non-profit organizations and charities, said Willis.
One of the benefits of this holiday program is that it gets the children involved with their local community.
"It makes the youth of the community feel like this is their town, and it gives them a sense of belonging," Willis said. "It makes them get involved, and it's hopefully something that they will remember as they continue throughout their lives."
Students in the preschool class at Valmead Elementary school decorated a tree with the patriotic theme.
"We've handmade some ornaments and things to put on the tree, and this gives the children a sense of unity," Valmead Teacher Debra Bolick said. "Decorating the tree gets them in the spirit."
Valmead second-grader, Tatiana Dierdorf agreed.
"It's fun decorating," she said.
Four-year-old Lakken Watson, was equally happy to share with passersby that he was "making a Christmas tree."
Members from American Legion Post 29 were helping to set up West Lenoir Elementary's patriotic tree.
"We're just trying to help the kids out," said Steve Bumgarner, commander of Post 29. "These kids have worked hard to put a patriotic tree together, and we're here to support them."
Susana Silvestri, a computer teacher at West Lenoir, said that the school researched and found out that there were a total of 120 soldiers from North Carolina that lost their lives in the war in Iraq.
The tree they decorated honors them, with its 120 handmade ornaments, each complete with a photograph and personal information for the individual soldiers.
In addition to this, they collected 120 presents for Toys for Tots and handcrafted 120 cards, each one in memory of the soldiers that died.
"All we're asking is for people to come and pick up one of the cards and pray for their families," Silvestri said.
Students from Davenport A+ School chose to decorate a "green" tree to encourage the community to recycle.
"We've used all recyclable materials to create the phonics characters from Letterland," said Robin Clark, kindergarten teacher at Davenport. "I'm hoping (the kids) will realize that we just don't need to throw away everything, that we can save things and turn trash into treasure."
For ornaments, the students and staff at Davenport got creative and made paper fans out of newspapers and bells out of yogurt containers.
Students at Collettsville School chose to decorate a tree with the "local heritage" theme.
Faculty at the school took pictures of the students as they were dressed in old-time apparel, and they antiquated the photos to give them an aged look.
They also used authentic family photos from many years ago to further their theme.
The children drew pictures of what they thought things might have looked like years ago.
Ultimately the school hopes that through this project the students will learn more about their own individual heritage.
"We want them to learn about their past history, their family, traditions, going to church having Christmas and how the community is so important," said Lorraine Woods, first-grade teacher at Collettsville.
Brooke Coffey and Eryn Wright, first-graders at the school, were both proud to display their drawings on the tree, one of a horse and the other a school.
When the evening drew to a close, and bellies were full of cookies and hot cocoa, the Christmas lights came on and in the dark of the night, the efforts of an entire community illuminated the town.
