The light displays that made up Christmas in the Park may be down at Oak Park, but the amount of dollars raised from the fundraising event have gone up. Way up.
While the final numbers from this year's Christmas in the Park fundraiser aren't in yet, this year may be the most successful year in the history of the fundraiser organized by the Minot Sertoma Club.
Brian Berg, a co-chairperson for the Christmas in the Park committee, said that it is "very likely" that the Sertoma Club hit a new fundraising high.
"It looks like it's probably going to be our best fundraising year, so that's good," Berg said, noting that "right about $35,000" was raised from the fundraiser, which began on Nov. 26 and ended Jan 1. "I think it's probably maybe $5,000 to $10,000 higher than the average year, roughly."
For 13 years, the Minot Sertoma Club has held Christmas in the Park, in which Oak Park is transformed into a winter wonderland of Christmas decorations. At five bucks each, carloads of visitors meandered through the park to take in the sights. According to Berg, about 4,600 cars a little higher than average passed through the park this year. This is one form of revenue for the fundraiser. In addition, the club either rents out space for businesses or organizations to place their own displays, or leases existing Christmas displays that the Sertoma Club owns.
Berg said that by the end of Christmas in the Park, the Sertomans found that they raised $3,500 more than last year.
"I think the reason is, we lost three days at Christmastime, because of the big storm," Berg said of last year's event. This year, they only lost one day to inclement weather.
The Sertoma Club has an emphasis on supporting speech and hearing programs, as well as "mostly youth-related activities around the communities," he said.
Most recently, the Sertomans donated $50,000 to the Jack Hoeven Baseball Field and $25,000 for an outdoor playground at the YMCA. These were, in Berg's opinion, "a couple of our big donations."
While the Sertoma Club do not have any immediate plans for how the money will be spent, Berg said it will continue to fund "similar types of things" that it has in the past, such as scholarships in speech and hearing programs at Minot State University "and other similar types around the community."
Christmas in the Park is Sertoma's biggest fundraiser, Berg said. Most of the money raised by the Sertoma members comes from this and the Norsk Hostfest raffle.
