Lights are on in Wewahitchka

There is something community about a good old fashioned Christmas parade.

This was on full display this past weekend as Christmas on the Coast concluded with the tree lighting and a parade in Port St. Joe.

Mexico Beach officials plugged in their lights and lit up the city’s Christmas tree on Monday night.

These events remind so many of us why we live in this postcard capital of the world.

Yes, the sun and the water and the waves and the forests - though rapidly vanishing it seems - provide the images, it is the sense of place, of community, that frames it all.

Children from eight weeks to 80 years turned out last Saturday in Port St. Joe, in many cases early for a critical vantage point, and squealed and laughed with delight as the sirens roared, the trucks and floats and Santa passed, doling out candy and, in a first for me, ice cream, courtesy of the Piggly Wiggly.

This weekend the Wewahitchka Women’s Club lights up the night around Lake Alice Park.

Starting at 10 a.m. CT the Women’s Club and the City of Wewahitchka will host the annual Christmas Lights in the Park.

The daytime festivities include a 5K run/walk, cake walks, mechanical bull ride, power tramp rides, children activities, as well as food, craft and arts booths.

This is the top fund-raiser for the Women’s Club, which donates to a host of local and regional charities.

The entry fee for the 5K is a new toy, along with $10 or $15 depending on time of registration and the winner will be part of the ceremony to turn on the lights around the park around, oh, say, dark-thirty.

Beyond that, the entire day is free because of the many community sponsors striving to provide a little bit of merry in everybody’s Christmas season.

Come dusk, the parade will get started down Hwy. 71.

And that means Santa and too many elves to count.

Some of those elves have been hard at work already, thanks to the Women’s Club, Gulf Correctional Institute’s Randy Tifft and many contributors.

They have been busy at work collecting and refurbishing used bicycles and tricycles donated from around the community in an effort to provide 100 needy children with some wheels under the tree.

The volunteer fire departments have been serving as drop-off points and the inmates from the Howard Creek work camp have been doing the refurbishing and reports are that better work is rarely accomplished at the North Pole.

Donations have come from throughout the area, Mexico Beach to Wewahitchka.

And there is still time to make a donation of a used bike or trike for a needy child this Christmas.

Drop it off at the volunteer fire departments around the county, or North Florida Child Development and the elves will take care of the rest.

And you will remind yourself again, as another opportunity for merriment and cheer arrives this Saturday, why we choose to live in this area, why this community will wrap you in its arms and not let go.

It was on display last weekend along Reid Avenue in Port St. Joe, Monday night at Sunset Park in Mexico Beach and will be again this Saturday in Wewahitchka.

They are the sights and sounds of the holiday spirit. They are the sights and sounds of community.

No other time of year, no other place on the map, seems to make the two one.