Helensburgh Festive Lighting charity volunteers
have one clear objective, to provide Helensburgh Christmas Lights display for seven weeks from mid November to the middle of January each year, but what do they do for the rest of the year?
The group of friendly elves do in fact work throughout the year to get ready for the big switch on, this year November 20th, details are on our Events section. They have a grotto with a large workshop and storage for all the lights plus the very special Elfare Unit with its own Elf Lounge where they can enjoy a break and plan their capers. They have lots of fun with their hobby and have welcomed new volunteers and members this year to their team.
In the workshop all the features are maintained and repaired, four elves have been trained on this complicated task, to ensure that all 160 lights are ready for installation from the end of October. A large stock of spares is maintained and all the equipment needed for the Big Switch On event is stored in another container.
This year four elves have undertaken specific training to handle the cherry picker and all have passed this qualification so will share driving duties during the put up. During the year the elves have to raise funds to pay for their antics and this year have had a few very successful fundraisers at the market in the square selling home grown cacti and succulents kindly donated by an elf. These market days have been great fun as elves love meeting people and chatting all day.
During the winter months, elves write applications for funds so that the town can enjoy new lights and in 2021 all of these have been successful so we have lots of new lights but the task of raising the money to put them up continues right up until Christmas.