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Families celebrate Lighting of the Green
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.The Canfield United Methodist Church hosted a Christmas concert performed by fourth-grade Hilltop Elementary School and C.H. Campbell Elementary School students and the Canfield Village Middle School Cardinal Chorale, under the direction of Michael Fay (left), CHC music teacher, and Stephanie Summers, CVMS music teacher.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.The Canfield Green, including the gazebo, was glowing and was awash in Christmas lights and decorations after being lit up during the Rotary Club of Canfield’s annual Lighting of the Green Dec. 6.
By ABBY SLANKER
The Rotary Club of Canfield continued the holiday tradition of the annual Lighting of the Green on Dec. 6. The event featured horse-drawn carriage rides, cookies, cocoa and live music at Piccadilly Parlour and candy, apples, cookies and other treats at the Township Hall, including Santa Claus.
Attendees could also enjoy a tour of the Dispatch Center, an ice carving demo by Tim Hartman, a video display by LED3, display of lights rides to Fairview Avenue, which offered a view of Mike McAndrews’ house lit up for the holidays, with his lights synced to music to further the effect.
Anthony Nacarato, Lighting of the Green chairman, welcomed the crowd, which included Rotary President Sam Boak, Canfield Mayor Bernie Kosar Sr., Canfield Township Trustee Marie Izzo-Cartwright, City of Canfield Councilman John Morvay, Pastors Larry Bowald of Canfield Presbyterian Church and Jill Barton, Rush Church youth pastor.
“Thank you for coming to our annual Lighting of the Green. When I took over seven years ago, I promised to make this event bigger and better each year and make it a family tradition for Canfield families, and I believe we have done just that. Enjoy the evening and be sure to visit all our venues,” Nacarato said as he welcomed the crowd.
Pastor Bowald opened the lighting ceremony by asking the crowd to join him in a rendition of “Away in a Manger.” He then read a passage from the Book of Isiah. He then turned it over to Barton, who revved the crowd up to light the green.
After a countdown, the Green was glowing and was awash in Christmas lights and decorations.
After the lighting, Santa arrived at the Green in a horse drawn carriage with an escort from the Cardinal Joint Fire District fire truck and proceeded to the Township Hall to greet all the children and have his picture taken with all of them.
The Canfield United Methodist Church hosted a Christmas concert performed by fourth-grade Hilltop Elementary School and C.H. Campbell Elementary School students and the Canfield Village Middle School Cardinal Chorale, under the direction of Michael Fay, CHC music teacher, and Stephanie Summers, CVMS music teacher.
The students sang holiday classics such as, “Jingle Bells,” “O Christmas Tree,” “Deck the Halls,” “Silent Night” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”
Fay also had the students perform a couple new ‘classics,’ much to their delight.
“About a year and a half ago, our lives changed. The movie “Frozen” was released and we were treated to some great songs. We will now perform two of those songs and I invite you all to sing along. If you say you don’t know the words, I don’t believe you,” Fay said.
The choirs, and audience members, proceeded to sing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” and, of course, “Let it Go.” The students closed their performance with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
“It is a wonderful thing for three buildings in our school district, Hilltop, C.H. Campbell and CVMS, to be able to come together and perform at this community event,” Fay said.
Also available at the church was a craft for the children and light refreshments.
Local business sponsors included Farmers National Bank, Boak and Sons, Dr. Pamela Barkett, DDS, Inner Circle Pizza, Something New Florist, Bodine and Perry, Maroun’s Import Specialists, Coventry Lighting and Lane and Rusu Law Offices.
Donations of supplies and equipment came from Belleria Pizza of Canfield, Nemenz IGA, Giannios Candy Company, Stepuk Farms, White House Fruit Farms and Piccadilly Parlour. Craig Olson of Olfield Graphics provided all printing needs for the event and Donnie Dragish of DG&T Digital Marketing Consultants provided all design work. Rotarian families also sponsored trees on the Green.
“We could not have done this without all our sponsors and the Rotarians. So many Rotary members gave their time, money and help for this event, making it possible for it to be a 100 percent free event open to the public,” Nacarato said.
This year, the Rotary also offered a raffle giveaway with well over $400 worth of gift cards from such local businesses as the Blue Wolf Tavern and Rulli Brothers.
According to Nacarato, after much consideration, this year the event was held on a Saturday instead of a Friday and with the great turn out, the Rotary plans to keep the event scheduled for the first Saturday in December.
“We changed it to Saturday this year and still had a great turn out. We are planning on keeping it on the first Saturday of December, so watch for it next year,” Nacarato said.
The Rotary Club of Canfield also gave away pickle ornaments to attendees to place on their Christmas trees and hopefully instill a tradition in their family.
“We at Rotary wanted to emphasize family tradition this year. Our president, Sam Boak, bought pickle ornaments which included the story of the tradition and we hope families practice that tradition this year and every year. We want to help families instill traditions they can carry on each year,” Nacarato said.