By Natalie M. Zeigler
City Manager
The Annual Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting in Burry Park last Friday, Dec. 5, if you missed it, was the biggest this city has ever seen. Vocal performances came from Hartsville High School and the Hartsville Community Chorus, and the record crowd was treated to dance routines from several of our local studios, including two from the Brenda Cranford School of Dance and another from the Hartsville Boys & Girls Club.
The ceremonial lighting of our City Christmas Tree, however, isn’t as big as the main community event of the season which came the next day: the Hartsville Christmas Parade. Not even the fact that the Hartsville High Red Foxes were playing for the state football championship that afternoon did much to diminish the crowds stretching from South Fifth Street all the way through downtown. Well over 60 entries came in for the 2014 parade, and the variety of people who come together is always staggering – churches and classic cars, businesses, beauty queens and Boy Scouts, fraternal organizations and fire departments. Our own Hartsville Fire Department brought up the rear with the brand-new Engine 111.
In some ways, the draw of these events is fairly simple, offering the pleasure of seeing your children performing or waving to the crowd from a float, or seeing the stunt cars and motorized wheelchairs of the local Shriners. Viewed another way, these traditions are much more meaningful. When, other than the Hartsville Christmas Parade, do that many of your neighbors come together to celebrate their organizations which collectively define what Hartsville is?
A weekend of events like that goes a long way towards showing that, even though community spirit everywhere is often believed to be declining, to be hopelessly fractured, it is far from dead in Hartsville. For those who joined in the parade this year, and who can remember marching in the parade when they were children, there is a comfort to the idea that Hartsville will still turn out for a parade every December when our children are adults.
We would be remiss, also, if we didn’t thank all the City staff who have once again made our Christmas events possible and enjoyable for so many. From the Police and Fire departments providing safety and logistics for the parade to the Public Service Department which sets up our Christmas trees and parade lineup sites, as well as our Parks and Leisure Services which is always ready with equipment and a hot chocolate bar and our City Hall staff, which spent months planning the events, it was a very successful team effort.
The City of Hartsville’s events for December are not yet over, either. For years now, the City has hosted a free showing of a Christmas movie this time of year, and this year we’re doing something slightly different. A free showing of “Frozen,” sponsored by the Darlington Raceway, is happening at the Center Theater this Saturday, Dec. 13. The movie begins at 4 p.m. and will feature a special visit and photos with a Snow Queen from 3 to 4 p.m.
Natalie Zeigler is the City Manager of Hartsville. For more information, call City Hall at 843-383-3015 or email info2@hartsvillesc.gov.