Annual holiday park lighting to take place at CCU

This year's holiday park lighting will be held at Blanton Park on Dec. 3 at 4:30. The Office of Special Events, the Office of the President, and Student Activates and Leadership welcomes student, faculty and staff to attend.

Casey Roach is the program coordinator for the Office of Special Events, and she expressed how excited she is for this event.

“We’ve been having this event for more than 10 years, and this is the one Coastal event for students, faculty and staff that brings the entire campus community together to have fun,” said Roach.

The theme for the holiday park lighting is The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Edition. The Coastal youth ballet theatre will perform to promote their Nutcracker ballet performance in Wheelwright Auditorium December 7, 8, 14 and 15 at 3 p.m.

The Holiday Park lighting will have fun, food and appreciation. At each station you can find candy, craft making, a photo booth, ice skating, a s’mores pit, letters to Santa, letters to soldiers, snow globes and more.

Elizabeth Leljedal is the special events coordinator for the Office of Special Events gave us insight on how volunteers helps this event run smoothly.

“The Teaching Fellows, Kappa Delta Pi honor society and the new Presidential Ambassadors helps by tabling, setting up, and leading activities,” Leljedal said. “The Presidential Ambassadors will do shift changes to allow everyone to enjoy the event.”

The Holiday Park lighting event also strives to give back to the community. Everyone is encouraged to bring a book for students between 5-10 years old to donate to Freedom Readers.

Freedom Readers Inc. strives to interrupt the cycle of poverty by providing opportunities for children to develop advanced literacy skills that will improve their academic performance and increase long-term career prospects.

Brittany Dontaelli is the Student Activities and Leadership Coordinator spoke about the importance of student engagement.

“There were a few seniors who have never heard of this event and I want to spread the word to students and get them excited about what our university has to offer,” said Dontaelli

There will be a special appearance from the north pole as we will be welcoming Santa Claus and Miss Claus. They will both be at the photo booth and walking around during the event. The photography department will also be takin photos of the event and you can find them by logging onto: tinyurl.com/2019BlantonParkLighting and use the password: Jinglebells2019.