If you enjoyed the annual “Making Spirits Bright” display in Evergreen Park during the holidays, you contributed to an exceptional success for the benefit of the Sheboygan Community. The operators of the annual fundraiser said on Tuesday that the goal of 6,000 pounds of food was overwhelmingly surpassed with a total of 132,979 pounds of food donated. Those came from a combination of visitors who drove through the holiday lights show, participated in the Holiday Lights Hunger Run/Walk, or contributed at barrels distributed throughout Sheboygan County. This brings the 14-year total to 1.3 million pounds of food donated.
Of the 22,768 vehicles attending, the furthest came from Lake Tahoe, California, and 41% of visitors traveled 10 or more miles. The event is free, but donations are encouraged and 74% of visitors did so.
Volunteers recognized for their contributions of 14,902 total hours include Mally Henne, the marketing committee chair for the event; Rick Hoffmann and Rich Neerhof who spent “countless hours year round” in the workshop building and refurbishing displays, and Todd Gutschow, a new park captain who also volunteered with setup and takedown of the displays. Also recognized were Tom Shircel as MVP of the team, and three additional volunteers: Gerry Plehn who is retiring as park captain after 14 years, Kim Redman, the ‘on-call” volunteer, and Mark Potich who worked as the liaison between Making Spirits Bright and the City of Sheboygan.
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