The 32nd Annual Holiday in the Park, hosted by the City of Owensboro’s Department of Parks and Recreation and Public Works Department, opens at Legion Park Wednesday, Nov. 21 and will run through Jan. 2, 2019.
With more than 50 structures and 200,000 bulbs, crews have been working for the past couple of weeks to get ready for Wednesday’s lighting.
According to Amanda Rogers of Owensboro’s Dept. of Parks and Recreation, Holiday in the Park began in 1986.
“At the time, Parks Director Cyndi Sturgeon and Facilities Manager Bill Jackson had a vision of Christmas structures in the park,” Rogers said. “[Sturgeon] gathered pictures of different wooden structures and created a catalog with the desired structures she wanted in the parks and went around to local businesses in Owensboro to get sponsorships for the different structures.”
Sturgeon met with Army Armstrong who, after receiving sponsorship, built the wooden structures for Legion Park, and new structures sponsored by local schools and businesses have been added each year with the City of Owensboro providing the lights.
In January 2000, a tornado swept through Owensboro causing severe damage to many of the structures that were still on display in Legion Park. According to Rogers, the Parks and Recreation decided then to begin the process of purchasing lighted displays.
Each year, Holiday in the Park displays the remaining wooden structures, but lighted displays have been added.
