VFD rescues Chicora Light-Up Night
Closets filled with turnout coats and firefighting equipment decked the walls of the volunteer fire station, emptied to make room for a displaced Christmas festival.
Face-painting, raffles, clowns, balloons, a Christmas tree and visitors packed rows of tables and chairs.
Santa and Mrs. Claus beckoned children toward their laps, where they asked them whether they’d been good.
Yes, they had.
What would they like for Christmas, Santa would ask.
A caricaturist worked at a canvas near a sign that invited anyone to sign up for $5. A Mario mascot made a baby laugh with his mustachioed mug, exchanging an interplay of high-fives with his family, while the Grinch skulked between the merrymakers.
Outside the rain hammered the streets, driving latecomers to break into a sprint and lift hoods and collars over their heads.
Sunday marked the first year Chicora planned a parade to accompany its annual Light-Up Night celebration, but the weather disagreed. A forecast led organizers from the Chicora Light-Up Night Committee (CLUNC) to meet with members of the borough’s Volunteer Fire Department that morning.
Everyone improvised.
“They were more than willing to accommodate and to work with us to have the event here,“ Tara Hackwelder said of the volunteer firefighters.
Hackwelder, a volunteer with C.L.U.N.C., said, “We’re super grateful because that was a really selfless act, and they actually got all the setup done. We actually just said, ‘We’d like this here,’ and they did it all. They were wonderful.
“The last minute, the day of the event, having to change from an entire street event to an indoor event in one singular place — it took a lot of teamwork, but we pulled it off,” she said.
Fire captain-elect John Mann, or “Barkley,“ helped out as a clown for the first time this year, although he’d been practicing his clowning craft for five years.
“We’re like the rock stars in the middle of a party,” he said. “We have a lot of fun. It’s fun just watching kids smile and stuff like that.”
He wore floppy dog ears and a black dog’s nose above his beard, along with a jacket and kaleidoscopic goggles strapped to a top hat.
“You just got to be able to think quick,” he said, referring to the art of clowning. “You got anywhere from two to 10 seconds to interact with a child.”
“Where you been!?” he asked a boy in a squawky voice. “I’ve been lookin’ all over for you, and here you are standing here while I’m talking!”
The boy couldn’t keep a straight face as Barkley squawked on.
Santa and Mrs. Claus took the station by storm when they arrived together that night, greeting young and old.
Later, children approached wearing reindeer antlers and Rudolph noses, or carrying candy canes, and earnestly confided the Christmas presents they hope to receive.
“They’ve been very good!” said Santa, referring to all the children.
Mostly the children from that visit had asked for baby dolls, makeup and dirt bikes.
“Oh, they’ve been wonderful!” Mrs. Claus said. “I love talking to all of the children, and they’re so much fun. We have a good time laughing. That’s what I’m looking for. I want them to laugh.”
As evening fell, emcee Chris Hile, who directs Hile Funeral Home, introduced vocalists belting out “Merry Little Christmas” and “O Holy Night,” a choir of first-graders chanting “Jingle Bells” and a bluesy mashup of Christmas imagery. The melodies would bound off the acoustic garage walls, around tubes dangling from the ceiling.
Eventually the rain calmed, and visitors could once again buy funnel cakes and deep-fried Oreos from the booths outside, where Boy Scouts worked vigorously to meet rushes in demand.
The kitchen offered the toastiest refuge from the storm and chill winds. There vendors sold cookies and invited people to sign up for raffles where baskets filled with yuletide goodies stacked tables, while the kitchen was abuzz with activity.
Inside, Girl Scouts painted faces and crafted little bottles for I Spy games, where people could take turns spotting trinkets in seas of rice. Troop leader and parent Lori Nagle said many adult leaders running these activities used to be Girl Scouts themselves.
“It’s also really fun, because you get to make kids smile,” said Tia Nagle, Lori’s daughter, who was helping out at one of the face-painting tables. “Like last year, I convinced one of the little kids that I was one of Santa’s helpers.”
She laughed.
That night, Hile presented Ron Huff with a Spirit of Community Award for his work leading the Boy Scouts since 1990 and advocating for veterans through the American Legion and his help with the borough‘s Christmas lights each year.
“Ron has helped the Chicora community and continues to do so.” Hile said. “He is a well-deserved recipient of the Spirit of Community award.”
Then Pastor Bev Roscoe blessed the tree in the garage, the understudy tree that was smaller than planned because its larger counterpart stood outside in the rain. Dozens of gnomes surrounded its branches, their bulbous noses peering between their beards and hats that covered up their eyes.
And the garlands of lights around the tree lit up.
