Lighted Christmas Balls: 2016

16 December, 2016

Lighted Christmas Balls visit Green Thumb Garden Club

The Green Thumb Garden Club invited Justin and Jonathan to Greensboro Country Club to present their Christmas Program on December 9, 2016. The club, founded in 1944, is among Greensboro's oldest garden clubs.

Following a hearty prosecco wine get-together and a delightful lunch, the boys heard a brief Q&A session on ensuring blooms on the Christmas Amaryllis and few other gardening tips. Club members were as eager to learn Lighted Christmas Ball history as the Smiths were to share to share the story. In no time, the gardeners-turned-LCB-makers dove in to bending, fastening and shaping 27 pre-cut sections of Chicken Wire into neat, uniquely shaped globes.

If there were ever fast and nimble learners, these gardeners were they. Here are a few pictures from the event; if any members took any pictures, please email and we'll be glad to add them.

Thanks Green Thumb Garden Club for extending the right hand of fellowship and for your generous donations for North Carolina Food Banks. P.S. A downloadable how-to instruction sheet may be accessed by clicking on the Lighted Christmas Ball drawing beneath "How To Make" in the sidebar.

28 November, 2016

Many lights are now up - donations collection spots

New Canned goods Drop off location on Berkley. We have also moved the trailer out front at 2205 Madison Ave. I'm sure the trailer at Rolling and East Greenway will be out soon. We will put the tent up at 2205 today to shield the food donations from the weather. If you have $$ donations, you can make checks out to Second Harvest and mail them to us at 2205 Madison Ave Greensboro NC 27403 or drop them off in our mail slot. We will make sure they get to the food bank right away.

If you live in Sunset Hills and need wire or help, please let us know.

15 November, 2016

It's that time of the year

We hauled out our spheres and piled them up in the back yard to check and repair where needed. It's a daunting job but at the same time with these dark afternoons it is fun to think of lighting up the skies above Sunset Hills once again. We have heard from Jamey and Phil and other neighbors that their efforts are underway as well.

Last year was a terrific year for the Shine the Light on Hunger food drive. The generous folks in Greensboro and beyond dropped off $20,018 pounds of canned food and $57,306.25. The 5Kish Running of the Balls was responsible for $45,028 of the total. Thanks to Running with Horses for their part.

One day soon we will gather in the street with neighbors and friends to make more lighted Christmas balls and the launching will begin. The photo below is from last years workshop. If you want to attend just drop us a note at lightedchristmasballs@gmail.com and we will add you to the list.

26 July, 2016

Summer Update:

We never did get down all of our lighted balls at least on the side of the yard facing Ridgeway. We re-purposed some lighted balls which were on the blink to clear lights and randomly placed them around the back yard here and at the lake for light and just to enjoy. Instead of hanging them up high like we do at Christmas we opted to put them lower and we are enjoying them.

We have already had our first request for a workshop. We plan for the lighted ball workshop for Sunset Hills to be that Sunday before Thanksgiving with a rain date of the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It will be here before you know it.

The cumulative totals from the Shine the Light on Hunger efforts since 2007 is $182,202.25 in donations and 73,090 pounds of food dropped off in trailers scattered around the neighborhood. Last year we calculated that the effort provided 1,311,961 meals from the 2015 effort alone.

That is pretty amazing. It is worth the hard work of the neighbors to make it happen paired with the generosity of the good people who drive, bike, walk and run by the food trailers. A lot of you have asked me for the links to all the media attention - just scroll down a couple of posts until you see the snoopy photo. All the links are there or in the side bar to the right of the blog.

It continues to give us great joy to share this with other neighborhoods, communities, towns, and cities across the country and the world. With all the politics and craziness this does seem to be one thing we can agree on, the lighted balls bring us joy and bring food to a lot of hungry people in our community and beyond.

I look forward to seeing those first ones go up in the neighborhood. Enjoy the summer as it is surely slipping away.

30 January, 2016

I wish I could describe it to you

Lots of folks know the lighted Christmas balls are just about spheres of chicken wire all lit up and suspended from trees, neighbors helping neighbors, neighborhood food drives, turning strangers into friends, gathering around fire-pits and greeting all the passers by, interspersed with the best 5K in the world. All of those perceptions, and more, are real. And it's a sort-of periscope to the World to show that community really works, which in internet shorthand looks like #communityworks, #placemaking, #hungerhurts, #foodinsecurity and #LightedChristmasBalls.

Other things happen behind the scenes that help keep the lighted Christmas balls running. Like checking on a handful of food collection depots and utility trailers to see if it's time to pack it up and make a run to the food bank. And chasing down produce managers at grocery stores to score a ton of sturdy cardboard boxes so that the volunteers can pack up the food. And then there's somebody always running out to the food trailer late at night gathering up boxes of cereal, mac-n-cheese and anything else that could ruin, schlep it into somebody's dining room for the night to protect it from the rain and sub-freezing temperatures - and believe me, this was the rainiest December/January on record. And then then there's an early morning or late afternoon meeting of volunteers to sort and stack 900 pounds of canned goodness. nourishment into cardboard boxes, hoist them into somebody's pick up truck and drive this week's haul to the food bank. And then there's a bit of paperwork, transcribing pounds and dollars from another weeks outpouring into a shared Google worksheet.

But somewhere near the winding down of this year's food drive, mother nature dumped a record amount of snow, ice and slush onto two tailgate tents, and they collapsed in one ugly pile of twisted aluminum legs and canvas. See pictures below.

And so while we were waiting and waiting for the snow to melt, Anne ordered two brand new tents (they arrived yesterday) and we looked forward in earnest gladness to this weekend's sunshine, and to getting out and cleaning up the biggest eyesore Sunset Hills has ever seen. As Friday wound down, Daniel called to say UPS had just delivered the new tents. And just as Anne and I were drifting off to sleep, she mumbles, "Oh, by the way, somebody came by yesterday, took down the wrecked tents and took them to our trash cans, arranged the Adirondacks and stacked the camp chairs AND put up a new tent.

This whole season, the lives of our friends, neighbors and us have been on the giving end, and it's filled our hearts to overflowing. And today we got to be on the receiving end. I wish I could describe it to you. This picture will have to suffice. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Anne & Jonathan

28 January, 2016

Links to TODAY show clips and running of the balls (drone)

Click on these links below to see the December 2015 NBC Today snow footage +
Video of the Run via Drone.

TODAY SHOW CLIP SUNSET HILLS BALL MAKING PARTY #1

TODAY SHOW CLIP SUNSET HILLS BALL MAKING PARTY (JUSTIN SHOWS HOW) #2

RUNNING OF THE BALLS VIDEO FROM DRONE

A LINK TO GREENSBORO NEWS ARTICLE

WVA Extension service Posts from December

When the NBC editor finalizing the story on the Lighted Christmas Balls of Greensboro, she asked if we could put her in touch with other communities who had not only embraced the beauty and community aspects of the Lighted Christmas Balls but also focused that effort on the Shine the LIght on Hunger campaign. The folks at West Virginia University immediatedly came to mind. This is an email form the folks in Morgantown WVA to NBC.

We didn't collect money but rather collected specific items for the Backpack Project in Monongalia County. We selected just one of the sites that collects food for the backpacks (Scott's Run Settlement House - http://www.srsh.org/), but there are others in this county. They like items that are easy for kids to fix for themselves and filling.

Yesterday, I delivered 647 servings total of fruit cups (168), mac & cheese (140), spag/rav (130), and oatmeal (209) to Scott's Run Settlement House. It was humbling to see their operation and to get a greater understanding of the need in this area. Hopefully, this will become an annual event, and we can collect more. We might even be able to have a competition between the various colleges here on campus next year!

We had two workshops in my building and made at least two dozen lighted Christmas balls. Over the past few years, I've done workshops in the county where I live (Harrison) and have collected food for the local food pantries in my area. I don't do anything on the scale that the Smiths do in Greensboro, but maybe someday we can make a larger impact on the food pantries and the backpack programs. I'm fairly certain I have some more photos from other workshops if you need more. I attached one from the second workshop, and the FB post has pictures of lighted Christmas balls and the collected backpack food.

At home, I have about a dozen lighted Christmas balls hanging in a tree below our house, and it is a nice conversation starter to make others aware of the dire hunger situation in our county, state, and nation. I think most people in our rural area know, but many times they don't know how they can help. Our church is one of many local churches and other faith-based organizations that support the backpack program. (My husband is originally from Greensboro, and my sister-in-law took me to see the Smith's neighborhood, and I was hooked on how beautiful they are and what they stood for to ShineTheLightOnHunger!)

I am happy to help you in any way I can to help spread the word and to help people understand how they can help provide food and support to those in need. Please let me know what else I can do, OK?

Thank you so much and I hope you have a great day, Becky

27 January, 2016

Port Huron Photos

These photos were taken in December 2015 from Port Huron MI. Teri Nelson, a neighbor in Sunset Hills, introduced her mom and dad (Joan and Larry) to the Lighted Christmas Balls in 2011. They returned to MI and shared the idea with their neighbors. Each year they have a workshop and make more lighted balls. It is too cold there for an ongoing food drive so they are hoping to figure something out to have their own Shine the Light on Hunger. In the meantime, it is a lovely town and a very handsome display.