The Volunteers for a Beautiful Hartford have enjoyed coordinating the Christmas lights along the Riverwalk for the past two years. The lights are to be officially turned on after the annual Christmas Parade Saturday, November 11th. We have some exciting new ideas planned though!
We are giving our whole community opportunities to participate in making the Riverwalk a destination for everyone to enjoy this Christmas season!
As a community, we will create a lovely quaint Hartford Christmas display destination. Imagine being able to stroll Riverwalk and show your friends and family the tree YOU helped light!
These are three opportunities we are opening up to the community to help:
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Monetarily sponsor a tree.
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Put lights on a tree (VBH will provide the lights, you do the illumination. We just ask for your time as the donation!)
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Monetarily sponsor a tree AND put lights on the tree (this will help us cover cost and purchase even more lights for next season!!)
Anyone can sponsor and/or put lights on a tree:
Businesses
Groups
Downtown Property owners
Families
Churches
Neighborhoods
Friend groups
Book clubs
Individuals
Illuminate a tree in honor of someone.
Buddy up with a group, family or friends to illuminate or sponsor a tree!
There are a limited number of trees/areas that the public will be able to help with - nothing too high or on a slope that might be dangerous! Some trees would require some low ladder work. Let us know if you are willing to tackle those trees for us when you complete the online signup form.
All high ladder work will be done by professionals. They will also be doing the final electrical connections and all the take down at the end of the season. We need their work to be monetarily sponsored.
VBH will give people the lights and be at the Riverwalk to help with any questions they might have while they are lighting their trees. We will have signs made to put at the base of each tree, acknowledging those who illuminated the tree and/or sponsored the tree.
We will assign trees and you will be able to locate your tree(s) by the corresponding number on this MAP.
Click HERE for more details about the trees.
These are the dates and times you can choose from to illuminate your trees:
Monday, October 9 3pm - 6:00
Friday, October 13 1pm - 4:00
Saturday, October 14 9am - noon
Sunday, October 15 1pm - 3:00 *NO Packer game today!
Friday, October 20 1pm - 4:00
Saturday, October 21 9am - noon
(We may need to schedule alternate rain dates.)
We have levels of sponsorship ranging from “You donate your time” = $0 dollars to sponsoring trees that range from $50 - $2500 for the large professionally lit focal trees. Any amount will be greatly appreciated so that we can illuminate as many trees as possible and hopefully start funding for an even bigger display that includes much more at Centennial Park in 2024!
To sponsor and/or sign up your family, group or business please fill out the form (HERE)
(or contact Jason Wix of Faith & Giggles at 262-397-8689.)
Donations can also be made via PayPal (see our donation page)
or checks sent directly to:
Volunteers for a Beautiful Hartford
125 N Rural St
Hartford, WI 53027
We are so excited to be able to have this become a magical community effort and event! We are hoping by having people donate their time that this will provide the way forward to keep this project sustainable and growing for years to come.
We would love for you to join us in making Hartford's Riverwalk sparkle with joy again this season.
PLEASE SIGN UP NOW SO YOU DON’T MISS A CHANCE TO HELP US!
Please sign up TODAY! We'll start putting lights up October 9th!
