A Visit to Holiday Lights Benefits You and Your Community
Is touring around with your family looking for Christmas lights a holiday tradition of yours? If so, take a drive to visit Holiday Lights Magical Nights. This drive-through Christmas light display has become an annual tradition for many folks from southern Minnesota, eastern Wisconsin, and central Iowa. They travel to Pulpit Rock Campground in Decorah, Iowa, to take in the thousands of brilliant bulbs, visit with Santa, and see their child’s eyes light up as he gives them their own Creative Book.
We staff and volunteers at Helping Services hope you can visit this display and spend time oohing and ahhing with your loved ones. But this event is more than just a place for families to gaze at dazzling lights. Holiday Lights is our main fundraiser for the year. As you drive up to the gate at the Lights, you have an opportunity to make a freewill donation. That gift keeps services available when dollars are tight.
This year we negotiated some rocky places, like when funding ended for part of our youth mentoring program. We also had a cash squeeze during the shutdown, and experienced some uncertainty about how we would sustain our services for victims of domestic abuse.
Uncertainty is part of the new environment in which we must operate. Holiday Lights is one way to bring in financial support to get through the unclear times. Though how services and programs will function this next year is not completely clear, we make this promise:
Staff and volunteers at Helping Services will continue providing positive role models for children, substance abuse prevention education, and safety for adult and child victims of abuse.
Thank you for helping us keep this promise. Please visit Holiday Lights and make a donation at the gate. Holiday Lights is open every night December 12-28. Visit from 5:30 – 8:30p.m. at the Pulpit Rock Campground in Decorah. Santa Claus will be there each night through December 23 with a gift for each child. For complete Holiday Lights details and to see our great local sponsors, go to www.helpingservices.org or call 563.387.1720. Happy Holidays from everyone at Helping Services.
