Standing out in the cloudy and cold day, a group of people crowded around a metal Christmas tree. A long metal pole held the golden star atop and all around Christmas lights strung from the star. As the day got darker, a man stepped from the group and announced himself and the beginning of the First Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.
“Ok everybody, if I can have your attention, the festivities will be started,” the MISD superintendent Dr. Jim Vaszauskas said. “It is my honor to be here with you tonight to talk about our tree and to have the kids sing with us.”
Dr. Vaszauskas started the ceremony by talking about how it came to be. The Center for the Performing Arts Director, Flo Torres, decided that she wanted a Christmas tree in front of the center. Flo contacted the Ben Barber principal, Cathy Hudgins, with the idea of creating the tree by some of the students. Teachers Alex Higgs and Rob Goodson were contacted and then the work of the tree started.
“We had about 30 kids who came to help out build the tree,” Welding teacher Alex Higgs said. “[There was] a lot of help with the last week of the tree building. Thank you for the help.”
The students who helped build the tree came up and the teachers of the welding class introduced themselves. Ben Barber’s welding classes participated in the making of the tree, using cut off saws, cutting torches, grinders, Gas Metal Arc Welding, Shielded Metal Arc Welding, and a CNC Plasma Cutter.
“It has 10,000 lights and each and everyone one of them is going to work tonight,” Dr. Vaszauskas said, followed by the laughter of the crowd. One light could break a whole circuit of lights by not working properly or another one could make only half of the tree light while the other half shines brightly.
Made of metal and Christmas lights, the tree stands 33 feet tall, weighing at 900 pounds. 10,000 multicolored lights hang from the the four foot wide star. The star atop of the tree had little welded shapes and star on it to make the star shine brighter throughout the night. The tree took about a month to construct after the the class collected the needed materials.
“Santa Claus is coming, Santa Claus is coming, Santa Claus is coming, hear his bells, hear his bells,” the MISD Children’s Center Pre-K class sang while shaking the bells they held.
The Pre-K class sang three songs, two before the lighting of the tree and one after. The two sung “Ring the Bells” and “Are You Peeking?”, and the one afterwards was “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. After the kids finished singing, Lynn Wilkie, the Districts Event Planner for the CPA led everyone into the center to warm up.
