Friends of Dewar Park (FODP) hosted the organization’s annual tree lighting event on Saturday, December 11 at Dewar Park in the Fordham Estate District of the Bronx.
Attendees enjoyed hot chocolate, munchkins and sugar-sweetened cookies from FODP.The group also distributed Christmas-themed masks, candy canes and bells to community members.Senator Jose Rivera (78 AD) was also present.
Rachel Miller-Bradshaw, a founding member of FODP, said the group wanted to host the event because there wasn’t really a festival season in the local community.
“That’s it, just [to] wish the community a Merry Holiday, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Hanukkah,” Miller-Bradshaw said.
Meanwhile, FODP member Myrna Calderon explained that the group wanted to plant a tree in the middle of the park, which they could then decorate, but said the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation planted it in an inappropriate location.Way point, it doesn’t go with their plan.
According to Miller-Bradshaw, the tree that ended up being used for lighting was another tree that was planted in the middle of the park a few years ago.
“[We] just continue to give the park the love and attention and continue to host the event in the best possible way, because I think this will probably be our last event before spring,” she said.”We might pick up something to eat in the spring, but it’s all about having fun,” she added.
In addition to the problems with choosing the holiday tree, the event faced other challenges from the start, such as the forecast of rain in the hours before the tree-lighting ceremony.Fortunately for the FODP, the rain finally stopped into the evening, allowing the group to continue meeting.
FODP also ran into issues with light strings used on trees.Although initially lit, the lights slowly began to go out as night fell.”When I came, the top light was on and I could see the middle light was gone,” Calderon said.”I don’t know what happened.”
Another FODP member, John Howard, explained that the lights used are solar powered because the park department prefers to use them.He said the lights worked fine after three days of charging in the sun when tested the night before.He said he believed the lights would stop working Saturday night because there wasn’t much sunlight that day.
“When I got here about 4:30, they were not illuminated,” he said.”The sun went down, the lights came on, and then, about half an hour later, they started to go out, because there was no sun today. So, go for it—there’s just so much solar,” Howard said.
The team tried to fix the problem by driving the car behind a tree and lighting it with headlights.Howard praised Calderon for considering using the speakers to play music, and asked for a generator to power the speakers.
“I myself am in charge of coordinating with the folks at Parks to get their generator,” Howard said. “Now that I see this generator, next year, I’ll ask if we can borrow it for a lighting event.”
Despite the technical difficulties, the FODP and community participants seemed to enjoy drinking hot chocolate and singing carols.The most important thing, Howard said, is to let people have fun.”We are a very loose group and that has its advantages,” he said.”It allowed us to put it together at the last minute.”
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story mentioned that the 2020 tree lighting event was canceled during the pandemic, but that wasn’t the case, it did happen.Apologies for this mistake.
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Post time: Jan-15-2022
