Jim Elliott is at it again, spending hours of time during the holiday season to give something spectacular to the public. A routed light tour that will take you through the best-dressed houses around Red Deer.
What a great way to spend an evening with the family and or friends. A drive around town with a hot chocolate in hand, seeing all the work that people have taken the time to present to the public.
Jim started putting these tours together back in 1972, below is his story.
People have asked me – 2019 Red Deer Christmas Light Tour – Why??
When arriving in Red Deer 50 years ago, I started my first job in the City at the Alberta School Hospital (A.S.H. – Michener Centre today). At the time, this was a world-renowned facility for the care and treatment of patients, both young and old, suffering with mental and physical disabilities.
This experience impacted me deeply. I had a brother who passed away during childbirth and would never have the chance to enjoy anything in this world. Working with these people showed me just how much they simply wanted to be accepted, loved, cared for, and respected like any other individual would want in this life.
They had moments of frustration, anger, tears, smiles, and a strong desire to get out in the world and see things for themselves. That experience impacted and changed me as a very young man. Fresh off the farm, looking for some meaning in my own life, this was it. I would spend the rest of my life caring for others.
All the jobs that I have ever held have been primarily about working with people. I have always been drawn to small children and seniors, and anyone who may have had seemingly insurmountable problems in life.
The Red Deer Christmas Light Tour was born in 1972 while operating a Vern’s Taxi Cab in our fair City. You know, the residents at A.S.H. never forgot anyone who was kind to them. During my off-hours from taking fares, I would take many of the residents out on a small light tour in my car. To see the smiles on their faces when they saw our small City lit up with all those sparkling coloured Christmas lights, it was a sight to behold.
For as long as I live, one child with Cerebral Palsy will remain in my heart and mind. For a child who could not move a limb on his body, the smile on his face and the laughter steered me down a path that I will always follow. Today, many of the young people have passed away, but any that still lives in our community has never forgotten me. There is never a day that one of them doesn’t see me and want to visit.
George Moon, one of the original owners of the Club Café, took an interest in my ideas and provided funding to help with the gasoline used in my car and even some small Christmas gifts for the children and older people involved. He also enjoyed seeing the lights of Red Deer himself.
In later years while working with the Red Deer Transit System the light tour was reborn again. I started by renting one bus from the City and provided a tour for students, their friends, mothers, fathers, siblings, and grandparents from what was then called the Children’s Services Centre (now the Aspire Special Needs Resource Centre). For many years I rented four buses and each one was filled-to-capacity with the students and their families. As well, for three years we operated tours for the Central Alberta Women’s Shelter.
About five years ago we had to give up the buses because on really cold nights the windows would ice up so bad the people on board could see very little anyway. However, the primary reason for not using the buses anymore was the cost. Meldy made it clear to me that with the responsibilities of raising three teenage boys, I could no longer afford to pay for the buses out of my own pocket.
Since then, A.J. and I have spent our time creating routes around the City and giving them out free to anyone that wants to follow the routes in their own vehicles. This year is going to be the best, ever. A.J. has added six new subdivisions and the total time to see it all is well over four hours. He has broken the tour down into four separate sections so that the citizens may pick and choose wherever and whatever they want to see.
Finally, the City that has been so kind to my family and I, deserves to be treated with respect and kindness. I have tried to teach my children that giving back to the community that you love is the best thing you can ever do.
I think the 2019 Red Deer Christmas Light Tour does just that.