11th Annual Lights of Kindness

The Rotary Club of South Anne Arundel County will celebrate the 11th anniversary of its highly successful Annual Lights of Kindness charity event, a Christmas tree decorating contest that will be held December 5–8 at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville, Md.

An Opening Reception will be held on Thursday, Dec. 5th from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Homestead Gardens to recognize the sponsors and charities involved in the event.

This event has been important to the community over the past years; since inception, these unique and magical events raised more than $190,000 to help local charities.

The goal is to raise awareness for both local charities and businesses to make our community a better place to live and work. Businesses partner with charities to decorate trees and members of the community vote for their favorite tree(s) in person and online to help raise funds for the charity and the Rotary club’s foundation. Half of the proceeds will be donated to the designated charity and half will be donated to the South Anne Arundel County Rotary Foundation. A cash donation prize will be split among the charities' top three decorated trees receiving the most votes.

Proceeds will benefit the programs supported by the foundation, including the Bountiful Backpacks Program currently providing food for needy elementary school children; the Dictionary Project that provides dictionaries to third graders; Haiti workforce development programs; the Rotary Youth Leadership Assembly; scholarships, and the Polio Plus program to eradicate the disease world-wide.

More than 10,000 people are expected to walk through the Lights of Kindness Holiday Forest during the holiday season at Homestead Gardens.

Inflation and economic conditions continue to create needs in our community. The Lights of Kindness Christmas tree decorating contest provides business sponsors a valuable marketing opportunity in addition to raising thousands of dollars for local charities.

All trees will be displayed at Homestead Gardens from  Friday, December 6th thru Sunday, December 8th, and visitors will be able to vote for their favorite tree at Homestead Gardens during regular business hours or online at www.RotaryLightsofKindness.org. The on-line voting will continue until 4:00 p.m. on December 16. Winners will be announced the next day.

For more information and photos of winning trees: https://www.rotarylightsofkindness.org/