A bright light collects food for The Well in Spring Hill
For the seventh year in a row, the Grzegorczyks in Spring Hill have decorated their home’s outside for Christmas. If you ask their neighbors, they might say they over-decorate – but it’s all for a good cause.
Not only are their thousands of lights and designs set to music in their yard, but there is also a place to put nonperishable (canned goods) items for The Well food pantry in their front yard.
“We stole the idea,” Laura Grzegorczyk said. “My husband’s aunt’s neighbor did the same thing in Nashville and we wondered if we could ever get enough lights in the yard to get the traffic for the donations.”
They did, and the first year, 2009, they had 145. In 2011, they won the Channel 2 Christmas Lights contest and hit over 1,000. Last year, they collected 2,300 and this year, their goal is 3,000.
“We have a different thing this year,” Grzegorczyk said. “We have a matching donation where for every two items donated, $1 will be donated up to $2,500.
Grzegorczyk admits it gets a bit out of hand, but once the house made the newspapers, the people started stopping by.
“Part of the reason we do this is we want our boys to get the bigger idea of Christmas,” she said. “That it’s about Christmas and not how much you get. It’s about Jesus. Our boys enjoy counting the cans and updating the signs.
This year, the Grzegorczyk family has moved from 2905 Burtonwood Dr. to 1510 Charleston Park Dr. in Spring Hill Place.
Grzegorczyk said the lights will be up throughout New Year’s and are on every night from 4:30 to midnight.
Because the lights are set to music, those driving by need to tune their radio to 87.9 to listen to the music.
