‘Twas the Season in Cheraw

’TWAS THE SEASON!

TOWN OF CHERAW INTRODUCES THREE NEW PARTNERED HOLIDAY EVENTS

By Patricia Dixon, Program Coordinator with Town of Cheraw Recreation and Leisure Services

This past holiday season, the Town of Cheraw Recreation and Leisure Services initiated three new events that brought together local organizations in the community and provided citizens with new opportunities to gather and celebrate the holiday season.

DECK THE HOUSE HOLIDAY LIGHT COMPETITION

The department presented an inaugural “Deck the House” holiday light competition, where all residents with a Cheraw 29520 zip code could enter for free and decorate their house. By December 17, participants decked their homes with exterior decorations, but the contest included decorations in windows that were visible from the exterior. Volunteer judges were given rubric and scoring sheets to judge the house during the weekend of December 17-19. We also did social media posts encouraging our community citizens to pile their families in cars and drive around town to view the lights. We included a “Facebook Fan Favorite” category for our citizens to go on-line and on our Facebook page to vote for their “Facebook Fan Favorite” too with on-line voting during the same weekend. We partnered with Duke Energy Progress and our local CMC Building supply to help provide prizes to the winners. As cosponsors, their logos were placed on the advertisement and promotion of the contest. All homes that participated were given a goodie bag containing a certificate of appreciation, a Town of Cheraw Christmas ornament, and two free tickets to the Town’s new winter music concert.

WE DID SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS ENCOURAGING OUR COMMUNITY CITIZENS TO PILE THEIR FAMILIES IN CARS AND DRIVE AROUND TOWN TO VIEW THE LIGHTS.

TREATS AND SWEETS

Our new “Treats and Sweets” event with Santa and Mrs. Claus gave children who visited the Cheraw Community Teen Center a bag consisting of “Do It Yourself” (DIY) plastic ornaments with holiday stickers and faux snow to place in the ornaments. As families waited on their children’s chance to talk with Santa, holiday music played, and there were three activity stations with Christmas BINGO, holiday crafts and DIY stockings were set-up around the room for fun engagement. Treat bags filled with goodies (Christmas cookies & holiday candy) were given to the children as they left the event.

NOON YEAR’S EVE PARTY

Lastly, Cheraw Recreation & Leisure Services celebrated New Year’s Eve (NYE) by having by having our first-ever NOON Year’s Eve Party! This Friday, fun-filled, family-friendly party consisted of indoor games for parents and kids to do together. We provided games in the gymnasium and Teen Center, such as corn hole toss, table tennis, shuffleboard, basketball, foosball, billiards, air hockey and family BINGO. We had a kid-friendly DJ (our Athletic Director just happens to be a DJ too) that played line-dancing songs before the children entered some old school kid contests (hula hoop and musical chairs). At approximately 11:55am, children were given “noise makers” and juice boxes and parents were given flutes of sparkling cider. There was so much excitement and anticipation as the DJ counted us down to 12 NOON and then hundreds of balloons dropped from the ceiling. The atmosphere was epic as children laughed and played with the balloons. We distributed NYE goodie bags (filled with candy & noise makers) to all the children as they left. All three events were a huge success for our department and community!