BAKERSVILLE – Although it was a different holiday season, Christmas ‘Neath the Roan was ultimately called a success at the Bakersville Town Council’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 29.
Sharon Runion Rowland, a primary organizer for Christmas ‘Neath the Roan, reported to the town council about the successes they had, even though they had to cancel some of the events due to the ongoing pandemic.
“I wanted you to see the creativity and the uniquenesses that we put together for Christmas ‘Neath the Roan,” she said. “I think we have a lot to be proud of in this little town of ours.”
Rowland expressed great satisfaction with the Christmas lights that lit up the small town, which were put up by volunteers and the Bakersville Fire Department.
“I hope you saw around town that the lighting was absolutely gorgeous,” she said. “If you saw the emails or the Facebook posts, people were commenting all the time about how beautiful it was. But, the one that I thought was really cool was some lady wrote ‘This must have been like what McAdenville was like years ago when they first started,’ and I thought that was a tremendous, positive response.”
The town of McAdenville, NC is well known for its Christmas light displays and is often called “Christmas Town USA.” Rowland, as well as members of the town council and community, have expressed their desire to become a similar Christmas destination in the future.
Rowland also expressed her happiness with the youth events, like the drive-in movie held at Bowman Middle School and the letters to Santa event, which were organized with 4-H, North Carolina Cooperative Extension and the Blue Ridge Partnership for Children.
However, there were disappointments, like the cancelation of the ‘Journey to the Manger’ event.
To the frustration of many, the committee canceled the event due to safety concerns regarding the coronavirus, but Rowland said it gave them more time to plan for next year’s even to be even better.
“You all know that it was canceled, but the good thing about that is that we’re ready for 2021,” she said. “We had three ministers that stepped forward to help with the planning and they have recruited 10 churches for next year, so we’ll be moving forward with that as long as COVID doesn’t mess with that again.”
Christmas ‘Neath the Roan raised a total of $2,036 through contributions from businesses and individuals in the town, which provided a match to the $2,010 provided by the town.
The money went toward the execution of events, lighting, decorations and marketing, which included a Facebook page, a website and a new logo.
Rowland expressed her gratitude to the Town of Bakersville for supporting Christmas ‘Neath the Roan, both in spirit and monetarily.
“Thank you for being so supportive and helping us have dollars to move forward,” Rowland said. “It was very helpful and it also gave us the chance to challenge businesses to help us.”
Bakersville Mayor Charles “Chuck” Vines returned the gratitude and thanked everyone who was involved with Christmas ‘Neath the Roan.
“Thank y’all to the staff and everybody who helped and everybody who gave, because we had a lot of people working in Bakersville on this,” Vines said. “I’m very grateful for everything they’ve done. It really took a lot of effort.”
Rowland said they would begin planning events for Christmas ‘Neath the Roan in July this year, rather than October, to get an even greater head start.