2017

Anyone who knows anything about our display and its history knows that it all began with the simple intent of a Dad's desire to delight his little girl with 600 lights on two trees outside. And over the years, with no intentions at all, it became an unique, large and complex Christmas light display. In 2017, it was pretty impressive to witness the dedication it had instilled in the little girl it started for. Emily started her first post college job in July 2017 in Rochester, NY which coincidentally was my birth place. In order to keep the display going Emily drove up from Rochester every weekend from the end of September through Thanksgiving. Not exactly fun. Fortunately, when her employer Kodak learned of her need to drive up every weekend they allowed her to leave early on Friday's. They were so impressed with the story of the display which began for her, they did a special article about her in December which you can read here:

Emily Christmaslightstory

All around, it was a really smooth year. Daniel created an incredible new ornament which we hung over the pond. This was the most sophisticated and large item we ever created and it took over a whole day to assemble and hang for the first time. We named it spherical wonder.

Thanks to our visitors and the Union Vale Fire Department our fund raising total passed $316k. We helped the Children's Home of Poughkeepsie, The Ty Louis Campbell Foundation, The Ryan McElroy Foundation and Navy Seal Veterans. The UVFD also did a special night for Dutchess County Alzheimer's Organization.

We were on the Poughkeepsie Journal's front page for the 4th time in just 6 years.

We had our 14th Marriage Proposal. Congratulations to Corrine and Joel Place photo of Corrine and Joel