Bartlesville Daybreak Rotary
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA
January 31, 2006

“Fantasyland of Lights”

Bartlesville Daybreak Rotary is all about enthusiasm and having fun while providing service to mankind. Among the many high quality services the club provides, their signature event every year is “Fantasyland of Lights”.

Fantasy Land of Lights, an annual Christmas light show in downtown Johnstone Park was started by the Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce as a tourism event. Bartlesville Daybreak Rotary Club identified this as an event that would provide more visibility for the Club, give something back to the Community, and function as an annual fundraiser for the Daybreak Rotary Foundation to build its scholarship fund. Within a just a few months, Daybreak Rotary was the new home for Fantasy Land of Lights.

Every year Rotarians from the club organize an activity to create a light display that is offered free to the public everyday between Thanksgiving and New Year. Fantasy Land of Lights annual Christmas light show is given as a gift to the City of Bartlesville, drawing crowds from as far away as Independence, KS and Vinita. The show is frequently visited by bus tours from within the region.

Each night the park is opened for visitors to drive thru the park and enjoy the music and Christmas lights. Each night approximately 24,000 candy canes are given out to park visitors by the volunteers manning the Gingerbread House. These volunteers are youth and church groups, businesses, non-profits and families who give their time to take donations and spread the Christmas cheer. Through the Gingerbread House donations are accepted to pay for show expenses and to support area scholarships through the Daybreak Rotary Foundation.

The park is filled with lighted custom displays from a fully animated carousel to a replica of the historic Bartle's Mill. Displays are purchased from donations and grants from area foundations and corporations. Daybreak Rotary continues to add and change the park each year to create a new exciting event for the community. This year, Christmas music was broadcasted through an FM radio channel with the light displays following the musical notes. From the 45 foot lighted Christmas tree to the trumpeting angels displayed throughout the park, to a biplane flown by old Saint Nick, the park is filled with thousands of lights, motion and music. From its inception this event has grown to display over two hundred fifty thousand dollars worth of lights.

This year Fantasy Land of Lights, just completing its fourth year as Daybreak Rotary’s signature event, continues to provide an always changing and always exciting Christmas gift to the citizens of Bartlesville. In addition, this event has given over $16,000 to the Daybreak Rotary Foundation to be used for area student scholarships. Fantasy Land of Lights has truly given Daybreak Rotary a signature event unlike any other event in the community. For more information about the project and our club please visit www.fantasylandoflights.com and www.bartlesvilledaybreakrotary.com. We invite all Rotarians, families and friends to visit us to see this remarkable project in Bartlesville.
 

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