Lighting ceremony Friday evening

WORLAND – The first annual lighting ceremony, sponsored by RT Communications, for Pioneer Square in Worland is Friday evening 5-7 p.m. with live music, goodies and a special visit from Santa.

"RT Communications Vice President and General Manager Becky Dooley wanted to find a way to bring the families together in Worland and at the same time make Pioneer Square, which would be a focal point in Worland, a beautiful place for the holiday season. She has been in Rock Springs during the holidays and they have an adopt-a-tree program where families adopt a tree. They adopt a tree and then they decorate the tree at Christmas. Their chamber does that, families line up and they take a tree and they decorate it and they can put a sign out. So we talked about how we could take that event and turn it into something that would work for Worland," RT Communications marketing and sales supervisor Linda Weeks said.

RT Communications decided to take a look at Pioneer Square to see if the trees available there would work in creating an adopt-a-tree program in Worland. Finding that the park would work, the trees were divided into sections and 15 families, the City of Worland and the Worland-Ten Sleep Chamber of Commerce decorated their individual trees. "Each family has been responsible for buying the lights and decorating the trees and what we did was provide a bucket truck, Carrell Tree Services provided a bucket truck and the city is providing the electricity and the man power to make it all work," Weeks said. "Thank God for them (City of Worland), they have been wonderful to work with. They are excited about it too because it's going to create a focal point during the holiday season for Worland," she added.

The lighting ceremony will start at 5 p.m. with the official lighting at 5: 30 when it will be dark enough for the full effect, Weeks said. She added that the families and all who helped make the event a success will be thanked at that time.

Santa will also arrive around 5:30 p.m. with the assistance of the Worland Fire Department. Weeks stated that Santa will have a Christmas backdrop where parents can take pictures of their children visiting with Santa.

For those who are worried about it being too cold to go out, Weeks stated that there will be propane heaters running and the event will also be livestreamed on Facebook. She stated that a link will be provided on the RT Communications website for the livestreaming.

RT Communications hopes that the adopt-a-tree program will become a family tradition for community members. "Hopefully, this will be a fun event and we will be doing it again next year. I really feel that next year, we will have a whole lot more people interested. Decorating was fun and it doesn't take that long to do a tree and then with the equipment we have to help people get to the top, I think it will be easy and fun for a family to do next year," Weeks stated.

All trees lighted will be put on timers by the City of Worland for the best viewing throughout the holiday season.