Volunteers are the heart of a community, and those who work in volunteer organizations get to learn about the other aspects of a community.
That's the feeling of Jeff Buker, who has volunteered for the second consecutive year to help put together the Festival of Lights which will be on display until the end of the month at Binder Park.
"This group put in over 1,000 hours of volunteer time setting up these displays," he said. "When we started this project last year, we had a number of volunteers say they never had been through Binder until they came out to help with the festival."
Work began last month to set up the drive-thru light show.
"We're building this park up over the next couple of years to really bring a class-act park to Jefferson City," Buker said. "Binder has its own natural beauty. It's beautiful to use the resources that Jefferson City offers, and it gives folks in Jeff City and the surrounding areas something to do other than just shopping during the holidays."
Volunteers picked Binder Park because it was an "unused resource" during the winter, Buker said, and they hoped the outdoor light show would encourage locals and tourists to visit the park.
"This park is so large, and it has so much potential to build up over the next several years (for) just a phenomenal light show," he said. "We're going to try to build something extraordinary over the next couple of years."
Buker said he thought it was a good opportunity for local charities and volunteers to put on a light show instead of a company.
"At Homemaker Health Care (where Buker also does volunteer work), we look for projects to improve the community," he said. "Several years ago, we had talked about a light scenario, and we kind of stuck that in the back of our minds. We reached out to a couple of companies who do this work all the time, but it just didn't seem to work for us. So we thought if we did this ourselves, we could keep the money in Jefferson City so it could be used by the United Way and other nonprofit groups."
Born in Jefferson City, Buker said this is a unique fundraising event which is what they were seeking.
"We didn't want to do another chili supper or golf tournament," he said. "It's a big undertaking, and we reached out to several agencies, and they jumped in with both feet."
Buker said he and other volunteers go in July to Christmas expo shows to look at light projects. They begin putting the lights up at the beginning of November with four to five groups working at different times in the park.
The light show at Binder Park, 5840 Rainbow Drive, will be lit and open to the public 6-9 p.m. through Dec. 31. The Festival of Lights will be closed Mondays.
The cost is $20 per vehicle and $35 for buses. Money raised will go toward bettering the park and light show every year.
"I've worked at the end of the park where people leave after going through the display and the smiles on the people's faces and their comments definitely get you into the Christmas spirit," Buker said.