SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2020 | 5A
Florence Chamber encourages residents to ‘Shop Where You Live’
Florence has made a num-
ber of adjustments to its an-
nual holiday festivities to
comply with COVID-19-re-
lated regulations while still
offering some festivities to
preserve commerce in the
small town.
Postponed to next year
are Santa’s celebrated arriv-
al, hayrides on Bay Street,
the mayor’s tree lighting,
the cocoa and cookie trails,
and live music.
This year, in their place,
the Florence Area Cham-
ber of Commerce is inviting
those who shop to vote for
the best decorated of more
than 15 participating shops
and galleries, then drop off
their ballot to enter to win
a valuable “swag bag” full
of goodies and certificates
from Florence-area mer-
chants.
The free ballot is avail-
able beginning Nov. 27 at
FlorenceChamber.com un-
der the events tab. Com-
pleted ballots are due Dec.
26 at the Chamber’s Visitor
Center, 290 Highway 101 in
Florence, to be entered for
the drawing.
“Florence shops and gal-
leries are full of those kinds
of things,” said Bettina Han-
nigan, president/CEO of
the Florence Area Chamber
of Commerce. “We need to
rally together to save small
businesses in Florence.
Stores and other business-
es will be putting up their
most festive holiday dé-
cor — inside and out — in
hopes of earning shoppers’
votes for the best overall
displays. At stake will be
a special trophy declaring
them the winner.”
Hannigan said she rec-
ognizes there are logistical
concerns about going out in
public, so she strongly rec-
ommends wearing a good
mask, keeping a 6-foot dis-
tance from others, carrying
a small bottle of hand sani-
tizer and using it regularly.
“Please follow protocols
while getting around to our
many shops and galleries
for your holiday shopping,
and while doing so, be
merry and cheerful toward
other shoppers and shop-
keepers,” she added. “’Shop
Small Saturday,’ the day af-
ter traditional Black Friday,
is now a month-long cele-
bration of local businesses
in Historic Old Town Flor-
ence and around town.
“Instead of spending all
your funds online, come
spend them finding pre-
cious, unique gifts for
friends and loved ones —
something truly unique
and special for family and
friends — in Florence.”
City
Interpretive Site, Gazebo
Park and the restroom area
at Maple Street,” Messmer
said.
Originally scheduled to
start on holiday décor this
week, Public Works staff
members have been hard at
work to mitigate damage
from the recent series of
storms.
“As of today, it still has
the pumpkin, understand-
ably,”
Messmer
said
Wednesday of the interpre-
tive site on Bay Street.
“Their plans got a little
shifted, so they’re going to
be very busy over the next
several days.”
The interpretive site is
also the home of Florence’s
living Christmas tree,
which was installed in
2017. The tree gets deco-
rated with lights and deco-
rations by Public Works
staff utilizing a lift.
“The main question
we’re getting is about a tree
lighting festival. That will
not be occurring,” Messmer
said.
That’s not to say that
Florence won’t still be full
of the holiday spirit. In
addition, the tree will be lit,
just not in a public presen-
tation.
“Usually the majority of
Public Works staff help
with the light displays at
some point,” Messmer said.
“Some of the things take
more hands, like getting
the big tree decorated.”
In addition, staff will be
decorating Florence City
Hall, the Florence Justice
Center and the Public
Works Facility.
Public Works also teams
up with Central Lincoln
PUD to install the snow-
flake displays on utility
poles.
“Those will start appear-
ing soon depending on our
weather,” Messmer said.
PUD staff has also had
their hands full restoring
power and repairing lines
after the storm.
As part of the decora-
tions, Public Works will
also be installing a collec-
tion of holiday displays
that will be set up around
town. These will be places
for people to take pictures
and give them an excuse to
look at the holiday decora-
tions around town.
The second part of the
city’s holiday celebration is
a partnership with Florence
Habitat for Humanity on
the 2020 Holiday LED
Light Contest.
According to the event’s
Facebook page, “Many of
our traditional community
celebrations have gone
dark. We have plans to
make the holidays bright in
Florence!”
The city worked with
Habitat staff and Executive
Director Janell Morgan to
plan the two categories of
the contest — residential
and commercial — and
subsequent prizes. Lights
included in the displays
must be LED.
Now through Dec. 10,
people can sign up their
homes and businesses for
the contest. All decorations
and all lights must be up by
Dec. 10 and remain on dis-
play through Dec. 25.
“It’s for the whole com-
munity. You don’t have to
be a chamber member and
you don’t have to be in the
city limits,” Messmer said.
“There will also be prizes
and people can vote on it.”
People can sign up at
T h e Siu s l aw Ne w s . c om ,
which is hosting the con-
test online. That is also
where people can vote and
view a map of participants.
Messmer said the light-
ing contest was spearhead-
ed by Morgan.
“She was all for it and
kicked it off. … Thank you
to Habitat for helping us.
It’s a lot of work, and
Habitat has been a really
good community partner
in this,” she said, also
thanking Coast Radio
KCST/KCFM and Siuslaw
News for supporting the
event.
Habitat Administrative
Assistant Ivy Rash said,
“We’ve spent a lot of hours
finding ways to be positive
and encourage the com-
munity. It’s too easy to be
gloomy this time of year.”
Hence the lighting con-
test and Habitat’s numer-
ous other events listed at
florencehabitat.square-
space.com. These include a
holiday raffle, gingerbread
house contest, an upcycle
challenge, Ugly Sweater
Party and business-orient-
ed events at the Habitat
ReStore, 2016 Highway
101.
“We know we can’t do
things face-to-face this
year, but we wanted to
come up with ways to lift
the community up and
bring us together,” Rash
said.
The city’s third holiday
activity is a way for kids —
and kids at heart — to
interact with the North
Pole and its famous resi-
dent.
“We’re going to have
Letters to Santa,” Messmer
said. “We are putting North
Pole Express mail drop box
in Old Town. And then
we’ll have our elves write
responses to those.”
From Nov. 25 to Dec. 20,
the North Pole Express
mailbox will be available at
the Siuslaw River Bridge
Interpretive Center for kids
of all ages to drop off their
letters to Santa. People who
leave a return mailing
address will get a hand-
penned letter from Santa’s
local representatives.
“Who knows how many
letters we’re going to get?”
Messmer said. “It depends
on how many people par-
ticipate. It should be fun.”
Fun is a major reason for
the changes this year.
“We’re just trying to do
something fun, because it’s
not been the most fun
year,” Messmer said. “All of
these activities are pretty
much designed for you to
do on your own, as a com-
munity. You decorate your
house and then drive by,
and both of those things
are individualized yet
everybody can see them
and do it. Same thing with
writing a letter — that’s a
pretty physically distant
activity. And the holiday
photo ops are also some-
thing you can do with just
your little group or family.”
She added that these
socially distant events may
continue.
“They aren’t really things
that necessarily feel like
they’re COVID related, but
are things you could do
every year. It just fits in
nicely with the physical
distancing,” Messmer said.
“I would imagine a lot
more people are staying
home, who may otherwise
be traveling. So maybe
that’ll give them the oppor-
tunity to decorate their
own homes. And you can
win a prize!”
For more information
on the City of Florence’s
holiday activities, visit
w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m /
CityofFlorenceOregon and
ci.florence.or.us.
from 1A
Works staff.
“We will be putting
lights up at all of our facili-
ties, just like we do every
year. We’ll be decorating
the Siuslaw River Bridge
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