Deming aglow with Christmas in the Park
Dec. 7—Everyone was a winner in Deming Park's Christmas decorations competition on Monday evening, but several groups emerged as the biggest victors.
PS We Love You, which helps Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis battle childhood cancer, was the first-place winner during the 35th annual Christmas in the Park, with a decoration with the theme "Remembering Christmas at the Crossroads."
That brought the organization $2,000. Steve Butwin's daughter, Molly, and husband, Greg Barrett, created the PS We Love You fund in memory of their son, Patrick Stephen Barrett. Butwin said he wanted to depict a scene circa 1950 showing old shops along Wabash Avenue in downtown Terre Haute. The display, designed with the assistance of the Indiana State Community School of the Arts and built by the South Vermillion High School football team among 25 assorted volunteers, featured vintage street lights along a sidewalk with lighted store fronts.
"I wanted to do something from my childhood — this predates me a little bit but not too much," Butwin said, adding that in the five years PS I Love You has participated in Christmas in the Park, it's raised between $15,000-$20,000 for Riley.
In second place, with a prize of $1,500, was Team of Mercy, whose decoration was called "Believe in Yourself," while third place, with a prize of $1,000, went to the Terre Haute Humane Society for "Happy Howlidays."
Fourth place, with a prize of $900, went to Delta Theta Tau for "Mooey Christmas;" the $800 fifth-place prize went to Wabash Valley Master Gardeners' "I'll be Gnome for Christmas;" sixth place, worth $700, went to the Knights of Columbus for "Keep Christ in Christmas."
The contest featured 19 lighted shelters. Three judges — local artists Susan Tingley and Becky Hochhalter and Howard Greninger of the Tribune-Star — selected the top six winners, and the other groups received awards of $500 for honorable mention. Sarah Scott Middle School's effort "Happily Ever After!" received an additional $100 for winning the people's choice award, pushing the school's total to $600.
It was the 35th year that First Financial Bank in Terre Haute sponsored the event. Bank spokeswoman Sally Whitehurst said the bank has distributed $476,000 to participating organizations over that span.
Other participants and themes are: Terre Haute North Vigo High School, "Adventures at the "North Pole"; West Vigo High School Ambassadors, "Rudolph's Riverboat"; Friends of the Arboretum, "Hollies Aglow"; Terre Haute South Rotary, "Polar Express Hot Chocolate Anyone?"; Meijer, "Meijer Candy Cane Lane"; 181st Intelligence Wing, "Reindeer Boot Camp"; Tri Kappa, "Mouse House"; River City Art Association, "River City Express"; Groups Recover Together, "The Nightmare Before Christmas"; League of Terre Haute, "Not all Elves Make Toys"; Cannonball Harley Davison, "Cannonball is Coming to Town"; and the Vigo County Public Library, "All I Want for Christmas is Ewe."
The displays will be lit through Dec. 27.
David Kronke can be reached at 812-231-4232 or at david.kronke@tribstar.com.
