By Karla Pomeroy
Editor
New features added to this year's lighting ceremony
Pioneer Square Tree Lighting this Friday 5-7 p.m.
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Seth Romsa
City of Worland employees Mike Gerber and Jose Muñoz hang lights in Pioneer Park on Saturday, Nov. 23 in order to get ready for the Pioneer Square Tree Lighting Ceremony happening this Friday.
The second annual Pioneer Square Tree Lighting Ceremony sponsored by RT will be from 5-7 p.m. this Friday.
The lighting ceremony follows the Trim-A-Tree Christmas celebration where 16 families and organizations have been decorating the trees at Pioneer Square this month in preparation for the lighting ceremony.
Linda Weeks, RT marketing director, said some of the families and organizations are the same ones who participated last year and some wanted to decorate more than one tree so there should be a lot more lights lighting up Pioneer Square this year.
She noted that some of the light poles in the park are also being decorated.
In addition to the families and organizations, the City of Worland and the Worland-Ten Sleep Chamber also decorated specific trees in the park.
Santa Claus will arrive at Pioneer Square escorted by the Worland Volunteer Fire Department at 5:30 p.m. There will be a short welcome by RT manager Becky Dooley before the countdown to turn on the Pioneer Square tree lights and then families can line up to get take their own pictures with Santa.
RT will be giving away free hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. There will not be live music this year but Christmas music will play continuously provided by Big Horn Radio Network.
There will be two area food trucks providing concessions, pizza and burritos.
The city has established a small fire pit to provide an area for folks to get warm. Roasting sticks will be available for roasting marshmallows, Weeks said.
Weeks added that "Every year I hope to add new things. This year we've added the food trucks, the bonfire and more continuous music. We want to make it into something everyone looks forward to every year."
Both years, RT has partnered with the City of Worland for the event and this year they have added a new partner, the Worland-Ten Sleep Chamber and they have added the Main Street Stroll with seven downtown businesses staying open late during the event.
"We're hoping to attract more people to the downtown area with the Main Street Stroll so we hope it grows each year.
