Scouts Light Up River

Scouts Ben Tousey, Gabe Harmath, Leo Bonacci, Melanie Harmath (honorary) and Den Leader Liz Harmath at St. Thomas Lutheran Church.

I am a WEBELOS in Cub Scout Pack 212 at St. Thomas Lutheran Church. One of our service projects each year is Yard Charge, where we rake leaves for people. But it snowed a lot on our assigned day, so we couldn’t do it. Instead, we decided to set up luminarias for Light Up River on December 21.

What is a luminaria? A luminaria is typically a white paper bag with weights (like sand) and a candle inside. Some people confuse luminaria with the word luminary, which is a famous person who inspires other people. Many people see LeBron James as a luminary in the basketball world, but he isn’t a bag of candles!

We set up two tables to prepare the bags. We opened up the bags and turned over the edges. That keeps the bags from falling in on themselves and cutting off the oxygen supply. There were about 70 bags, so it took some time.

We scooped sand out of bins and put it in the bags. Then we carried the bags to the sidewalk and set them on the concrete divider cracks. After that, we put one candle in each bag and a parent lit the candle. It looked good. Finally, we picked up our supplies and tables and put them in the car.

We wanted to help St. Thomas participate in a community event. Anyone can participate, even if you don’t buy a kit from the Rocky River Beautification Committee. Some people made their own luminarias from milk jugs.
After we set up, my family and I drove around to see how the rest of Rocky River looked. It looked really nice!

I saw whole streets lit up with luminarias! Prospect and Eriewood were just two of the streets that were fully aglow. My mom, the Chair of the Beautification Committee, was really excited to see how people in all different areas of Rocky River participated. The next day, my mom, my sister and I picked up all of the lumanarias that were at St Thomas. Hopefully, next year we can do it again!

Gabe Harmath

Gabe Harmath is a 4th grader at Kensington and a Cub Scout.

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Volume 2, Issue 8, Posted 9:48 AM, 02.18.2015