Nov. 21—When City of McAlester Gardener Robbie Patton wanted to bring a community Christmas Tree lighting event to a city park, he pitched the idea to others.
McAlester Tourism Department Director Billy Sumner also thought it was a great idea, so they moved forward with the Festival of Trees and Lights, held Tuesday night at the city's Arvest Park.
They hope it's the beginning of a new Arvest Park tradition.
"We've always had trees down here," said Patton said. "I wanted to have a tree-lighting."
The city invited businesses, clubs and organizations to register with the city to install and decorate their own trees in the park at Second Street and Chickasaw Avenue.
Following the Tuesday night lighting event, photos of the trees were to be posted on McAlester Tourism's online page for public voting for the Peoples Choice Award.
Plans call for the public voting to close at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 19, with the winner to be announced Dec. 20. First, second and third place honors will be announced, along with the Peoples Choice Award winner.
In advance of the event, those decorating trees to participate in the Festival of Trees and Lights included Amber Ford and Kassim Wallace of the Mac Town Jeepers.
They joined with members of other organizations and local businesses who provided their own trees and decorations for the event.
Rebecca Kerns, assistant in the city of McAlester's Economic Development department, manned a station as the trees were being decorated, that included papers with the names of those who had registered for the event.
During the lighting ceremony, the city of McAlester Non-Uniformed Council sold s'mores kits to help raise money for the group's emergency fund.
It's used to help with McAlester city employees and their families who may be facing emergency situations.
The Festival of Trees and Lights is designed as a way to bring the community more together, said Sumner.
"We're excited for it," he said.