Volunteers help preserve vintage winter decorations

The lighted garland strung across the streets of downtown Whitefish, punctuated with red bells, snowflakes, wreaths and snowmen have become an iconic scene that many know so well.

For more than 50 years the winter decorations have brightened Whitefish. A group of dedicated volunteers have been repairing, replacing, improving and hanging and taking down those same decorations every winter season.

The faces of those volunteers have changed over the years as the older generation passed on duties to others, but those involved remain committed.

Trek Stephens came to volunteer for the project because his father Gary was also a volunteer.

Stephens recalls as a child being brought along on Wednesday nights to work on the lights. For many years the decorations were stored in the Stephens family business, The Toggery, and at the Bulldog Saloon.

Eventually those original volunteers told the younger generation they needed to take over.

“They said if you don’t help, the decorations are not going up this year,” Stephens recalled.

Today, Stephens still joins the other volunteers at the Roy Duff Memorial Armory, where they work each Wednesday from early October until the lights are hung the Sunday before Thanksgiving. In August they inventory the lights and then purchase replacement garland.

“This is the most rewarding volunteer experience because you get to see the direct result of your work,” Stephens said.

It’s a sentiment that his fellow volunteers seem to share.

The nonprofit Whitefish Shines takes donations for the materials to keep the tradition alive. The coordinating committee in addition to Stephens, is made up of Chris Schustrom, Mike Powers, Jim Trout, Mark Svennungsen, Todd Olson and Jim MacKenzie.

This season is a new one for the decorations. The committee has made the complete transition to energy-efficient LED and compact flourescent light bulbs. In addition, 13 new lighted strings of garland will hang across Second Street beginning at Spokane Avenue through Baker Avenue. There will also be 18 new bells built by welder Don Hunt and upholstered by Jeanne Thorson.

The committee will spend about $15,000 on decorations this year with all the funding coming from donations.

Last week Stephens, Schustrom and Powers worked on the remaining decorations to be prepped for hanging.

They work quickly checking to make sure a group of lanterns had new bulbs and were in working condition. In previous weeks lights in the snowflakes, wreaths and garland had been changed. Whitefish High School students from the National Honor Society and DECA clubs have been assisting with efforts.

The decorations contain roughly 10,000 individual lights total.

Schustrom worked to repair the Santa Claus figure that is well-known. Last year because of the reconstruction to Second Street the Santa wasn’t able to go up in its usual location.

“I got about a half dozen phone calls about it,” Schustrom said. “People missed Santa.”

This year Santa will go up, but in a new location. As Schustrom worked to make sure Santa was ready to go he admitted the Santa, which sits with a smiling face and waving hands, is an icon of the decorations.

“Rewiring the Santa is the most important job I’ll ever do,” Schustrom said with a smile.

“There’s a lot of Christmas magic right there in Santa,” Powers added. “This is one of those cool community things.”

There seems to be a sense of reverence for the history and tradition that comes with the decorations.

Jim Trout has been part of the committee since 1968 helping with the decorating and fundraising.

“I don’t know what I’d do the weekend before Thanksgiving if I wasn’t putting up lights,” he said. “When you think about the volume of what we do it’s like a lot of things in Whitefish. Other towns our size would never take it on.”

Come Nov. 18 and through part of the winter the hard work will come to life as Whitefish enjoys the lights of Christmas.

“When you put up the lights it changes the whole mood of the town,” Trout said.

To donate to the decoration project, Whitefish Shines, P.O. Box 695 Whitefish, MT 59937.