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Festival gets boost from beautification groupBy JIM TERRYof the Daily Telegraph staffBLUEFIELD - The Bluefield Holiday of Lights Festival - planned for the Thanksgiving weekend and continuing through Christmas - got a jump-start Friday with a contribution of $1,000 from the Bluefield Beautification Commission.Members of a festival steering committee, in a meeting Friday afternoon at the Bluefield Youth Center, were told the beautification commission wanted to kick off plans for the festival with the contribution. The donation was announced by beautification commission member Mary Jo Babbitt.The steering committee also decided Friday it will operate under the auspices of the Bluefield Department of Economic and Community Development, with local Economic and Community Development Specialist Rick Moore-field in charge. The committee also will operate in conjunctionwith the beautification commission.In other action, sub-committee chairmen were announced. They are Jean Ewing, design; City Treasurer Charlie Cromer, fundraising; Daily Telegraph Virginia Desk Editor Bill Archer promotion; Main Street Bluefield Executive Director Beth Andrick, special events, and Bluefield Code Enforcement officer and retired Fire Chief Billy Gibson, technical.Moorefield said Ewing will be in charge of festival decorations and exhibits, and will be instrumental in determining standards and criteria for the festival.Under special events, Andrick will be in charge of coordinating festival window displays, coordinating festival events for downtown and South Bluefield merchants, setting up festival vendors and coordinating Chicory Square activities in conjunction with the festival.Gibson will be in charge of coordinating the mechanical, electrical and related needs for the event.Cromer said those wishing to contribute financially to the project should make checks payable to the city of Bluefield. The checks should be earmarked for the Bluefield Holiday of Lights Festival.Moorefield said the festival “was not an original idea, by any means, but the enthusiasm for a project like this is just now coming together. We mainly wanted to get together and kick around some ideas, and that’s how this project got started.”Much of what will constitute the local festival will be at Bluefield City Park, with some decorations to be installed atop a flagpole and along some railing at the East River Mountain Overlook, the committee decided Friday.Later, the festival may expand to such areas as Tiffany Manor, the King Bridge Apartments, Bluefield State College and many other areas of the community, depending on available financingand public demand, officials said.Some believe such a festival here has a potential similar to the annual Festival of Lights at Ogle-bay Park in Wheeling. That festival attracts thousands of tourists and visitors each year.Beautification commission officials say the local festival could be coordinated with the use of luminaries on the Sunday before Christmas every year, a project sponsored by the Bluefield Garden Council.Others on hand for Friday’s meeting included Charlie Venable of the Pocahontas Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Association, Bluefield Parks and Recreation Director Robin Lef-ler, City Board member Rudy Brammer, Don Gibson, Beverly Wellman, executive director of the Bluestone Convention and Visitors Bureau, Susan Dodson of the Beautification Commission and Mary H. Kirby of the Bluefield, Va.. Beautification Commission.
Newspaper Details
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Bluefield, West Virginia, US
Sat, Oct 05, 1996
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Becky K.
NA, 07 Dec 2022
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