Krugerville starts new tradition

Krugerville residents experienced a first in the center of their town on Dec. 3: the first Krugerville tree lighting ceremony.

Mayor Pro Tem Kristen Kromer was grateful to experience the new event.

'It was great to see the community come together,' she said. 'The lights and the park—Randy [Forester] really outdid himself. He did a fabulous job. It exceeded our expectations.'

She added that Forester, the Krugerville maintenance manager, is 'worth his weight in gold.'

She also credited the commu- nity volunteers who made the event possible.

'We've had the lights in the park for several years,' Kromer said. 'The Farmers Market approached us about doing an evening market probably eight or nine months ago, and we just kind of came together and decided we'd make a tree lighting ceremony at the same time.'

Forester created the lighting display in the city's Woodlands Park.

'I get a vision, basically, a budget and then I do it,' he said. 'I used to build movie props for a living, so I've worked sets, so this is nothing new.'

He put together the display in about three weeks, and he got the chance to be the one to throw the switch.

'I think it turned out great,' Forester said. 'And I even handmade those out of wood that I found on the highway.'

Shay Lang, the sponsorship and marketing coordinator for the Krugerville Farmers Market, said she was 'over the moon with how this turned out.'

'It was a labor of love,' she said. 'Yesika [Horton] and I started planning this in January.'

She added that there were three additional volunteers— Melissa Patterson of MEtime Soaps, Amy Hertzog of Farm to Fork and Melissa Holmes of Holmes Rustic Family Kitchen who have worked with them throughout the year on the event.

Horton, the KFM chairwoman and social media manager, added that she was 'thrilled with how it turned out.'

'We had an incredible crowd that's still hanging out and going strong,' she said. 'We couldn't thank our vendors enough for being out here. It's a very busy weekend for holiday markets and school holiday events.'

Assistant Editor Martin Edwards contributed to this report.