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Lights, singing and Santa, too, at Lake Antoine event Sunday

13 days until Christmas

VISITORS CAN VOTE for their favorite light display at an open house 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the third-annual Lights At The Lake, sponsored by Lake Antoine Park Partners, at Lake Antoine. The event is free for the public. The Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School display, shown here, is among the 40 participants this year. The Daily News will showcase area holiday events and decorations during its Countdown to Christmas. If you have a display to share, take a photo and email to news@ironmountaindailynews.com or submit it through the newspaper’s Facebook page. Want to suggest a location worth photographing? Send it on to news@ironmountaindailynews.com. (Marguerite Lanthier/Daily News photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — The first two Lights At The Lake events, hosted by Lake Antoine Park Partners, were just that … about half of the campsites at the county park on Lake Antoine were decorated with the holiday spirit.

But several new events have been added for the third-annual LAPP community project, thanks to suggestions by the public and the business community.

An open house is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday featuring those new ideas, coordinated by Lights At The Lake chairs Ann Hruska and Nancy deKoster. This event has no admission fee to see the decorations.

Santa was invited to visit Dickinson County to give youngsters a chance to speak with him a week before he brings the reindeer to the local rooftops. Dennis Lynch of Norway volunteered to help LAPP get the jolly old elf there to sit at the Wifi Cafe at the park’s office.

Members of LAPP will hand out free hot chocolate to visitors while they wait to speak with Santa. Music is planned to be wafting on the winter air by members of the Kingsford High School choral department, led by Curt Rogan, deKoster said.

DREW BERNINGER, aka “The Elf,” will help Lake Antoine Park Partners do their first food pantry collection during an open house at Lights At The Lake from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday. The evening also will have Santa available to visit with kids. (Submitted photo)

Santa will also be near one of the two areas where food pantry items can be donated — Alex The Elf will be at the center of the campsites to accept those non-perishable items if folks want to drop them off while they tour the 48 decorated sites.

This year, several organizations and businesses wanted to be able to do holiday handouts, so they will greet visitors from the roadside in front of their displays. For safety, visitors are asked to stay in their vehicles; there will be no walking around, just driving through the park this year.

“Traffic will have a nice, slow drive past the sites, greeting folks who took the time to decorate with the holiday spirit,” Hruska said. “LAPP’s thanks to all those who put up displays — they are giving the community a gift.”

The public has been asked to decide the “People’s Choice Award” winner for best decorated site. The prize is $500, plus an ornament award to be hung at the winning site this year and every year they participate. There are signs with the QR code for people with cell phones to use, plus paper ballots at the park office. Voting will close at 10 p.m. Sunday; the winner will be announced Monday.

The mission of Lake Antoine Park Partners is to preserve, improve, promote and protect Lake Antoine Park in Dickinson County, Michigan, for the use and benefit of the general public. Lake Antoine Park Partners is a 501(c)(3) organization.

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