For many in Northwest Arkansas, the Lights of the Ozarks lighting and Christmas parade signal the Christmas season has begun. The visitors who enjoyed the lighting of 450,000 lights late last month can thank a bunch of college students.
About 45 University of Arkansas students work to raise funds, plan, promote and execute that opening ceremony. Godwin-Charles Ogbeide leads the "Meetings, Events and Conventions" class of the hospitality and human nutrition management area of the School of Environmental Science in the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences.
Students register for the class looking for experience in event planning and fundraising, said Ashley Byrd, a member of the graduate-level class. Her future plans include an advanced degree and career in higher education, which will include fundraising events from time to time.
Ogbeide wants the students to get the most learning they can from the process. Eight or nine years ago, as excitement and funding for the Lights of the Ozarks began to wane, he arranged the hands-on opportunity for his students with the then Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.
"I believe the best way is to always give back to the community," Ogbeide said. "Most important, I wanted students to understand that, in this work, it's not all about taking. It's about giving, also.
"Many students will carry their lessons into work with nonprofit agencies," he sad. "And that's the beginning of social justice."
First, the class developed a financial statement for the event, Byrd said.
Students start with a budget of $0 to present the parade, Ogbeide said. The students need to raise $8,000 to produce the event, with any money remaining in the budget after the event is completed going to nonprofit agencies of the students' choice.
Next, the students organized committees that helped them learn what benefits all groups of stakeholders gain from the event -- consumers, the government, students and the businesses, Ogbeide said. This year's committees included marketing and publicity, operations and site management and an administrative committee.
Byrd said each student was required to contact 25 area businesses, encouraging sponsorship of the event. They also had to guarantee a presenting sponsor. The business, in turn, got to carry Santa Claus on its parade float.
Promoting the event to the community was fairly easy, considering the fact that Lights of the Ozarks enjoys a 20-plus-year tradition and has always been free at attend, Ogbeide said. But, once sponsors were secured, the students had to promote those businesses to the community.
"Then we worked with the community to share information about the event," Byrd said. Word of mouth and partnerships with various media outlets helped spread the news, she said.
The students organized the lighting ceremony and the accompanying attractions around the square on opening night. This year, Elsa and Ana from the movie Frozen showed up to take pictures with children, benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters. Children had opportunities to get their faces painted and have their pictures taken with Santa. The UA students even arranged for a flash-mob performance.
Along the way, students gained experience in "governmental relations," as they worked with officials of the City of Fayetteville and the Fayetteville Convention and Visitors Bureau, co-sponsors of the annual lighting presentation.
For example, the site management committee had to consider how many volunteers were needed to manage the crowd at the opening ceremony, Obebeide said. They had to consider the safety of that crowd, with discussions in class centering on hiring off-duty emergency personnel.
In fact, one man fell, and the students had to know what to do. They knew not to move him and quickly had emergency medical workers on the scene, Ogbeide said proudly. "They had planned for it and took initiative."
"These events are those they will share with others in job interviews," he said.
"The Lights of the Ozarks is a important tradition to the Fayetteville community and families," Byrd said. "It's so symbolic: When they switch on the lights, the holidays have come, and it's time to get together.
"It's a treasure in Fayetteville," said Byrd, who came to Northwest Arkansas by way of Little Rock from Texarkana.
"I think its 22-year tradition speaks for itself," said Hazel Hernandez, special events manager of the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Marilyn Hefner, retired from the bureau, has been to every Lights of the Ozarks opening event.
Including this year's since she retired last spring? "You bet," she answered.
Lights of the Ozarks began in 1994 as a joint project between the city's Advertising and Promotion Commission, with the business side carried out by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, Hefner said. In 1993, the commission voted to install lights downtown in the winter months because "traffic was slow."
George Smith, then publisher of the Northwest Arkansas Times, one of the predecessors of this newspaper, envisioned an avenue of lights from the Fayetteville Municipal Airport to the Northwest Arkansas Mall, and along U.S. 71 through Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville. Smith, Holly Smith (no relation) and Gail Walsh were the three "civilian" or business representatives of the Chamber of Commerce's committee, Hefner said.
The Advertising and Promotion Commission bought the lights and encouraged local residents to buy lights for their homes and businesses. The city maintenance department and other volunteers designed the layout and erected the lights -- as they continue to do.
"It was a hard sell because we already had lights on the outlines of the businesses (on the square)," Hefner said. "But we weren't talking 'lights.' We were talking 'LIGHTS!' We wanted lights on everything that didn't move. They were using fishing poles to string the lights up because we didn't have the lifts in those days."
Hefner's favorite part of Lights of the Ozarks was the official lighting ceremony that first year. The Ozark Highlanders Band led the parade with a bagpipe march around the square -- with each side of the square illuminated as the bagpipers passed.
"It's just magical," she said and admitted she still "tears up" at the yearly events.
"You don't have to have money to go down there and enjoy the lights," she insisted. "You don't have to eat and ride the horses. You don't have to buy all the 'whirlygigs.'
"It's a nice gift to the city."
And why do families come back again and again for the lighting?
"It's beautiful," Ogbeide said. "But it's not just a one-night event. It stays up until New Year's Eve."
NAN Our Town on 12/17/2015