What does it take to pull together NoCo’s Winter Wonderland?
Slow your roll, Peter Pan!
Here’s some fast facts to wow your friends and family as you drive through CYO’s 15 minutes of seasonal magic.
The process begins June 1st with a hope and a prayer — a.k.a. a new feature brainstorm meeting. Templates are designed at Otterbox, fine tuned, and the final sent to Metal Distributors for plasma cutting. From there, the CYO Sportsmen add lights.
On September 1, the Sugar Plum Faries buckle down & get to work. Beyond the new features to light-wrap and program, all the previous features are pulled out of storage & checked (one light goes out, they all go out!).
From there, the frames are laid in their hopeful positions for the season. 5 to 8 people are needed to pull each feature upright, only to find they’re missing a specific screw. Once all parts are procured, the feature is set up, staked down, then viewed from a proper angle. Only then is it determined that everything needs to move 3 feet to the right. The process begins again.
All in all, we estimate 1,500 hours to turn CYO into a magical Winter Wonderland. Special thanks to the following organizations for hours and hours of their productive time:
Young Men’s Service League – Fort Collins
David of Lights Up Colorado spent 8 weeks in a lift wrapping every tree on the CYO property. We inadvertently learned he’s a fan on gangsta rap.
Can we get a hardware store sponsor?
Cliff Claven approved!
When you drive through NoCo’s Winter Wonderland, you’re looking at over 250,000 lights — 500,000 if you count the reflections in the ponds. The highest lights are 50 feet in the air.
To support those lights, we have:
2 miles of extension cords
over 500 plug-in sites
over 10,000 zip ties
4,950 feet of electrical tape, some of which is stuck to our Facility Manager’s jeans – we haven’t told him.
Our favorite fact of all? 40,000 candy canes for all the boys and girls that visit NoCo Winter Wonderland.
May your trip though Winter Wonderland visit fill your heart with holiday spirit!
Happy Holidays from CYO