The property actually belonged to Brother Asaiah Bates, one of the "barefooters." The borough appraised the property at $69,800 back then. Brother Asaiah made the property available to the city for a pocket park for $30,000, not quite an outright donation but a sizable discount. That year, Brother Asaiah had Dickie Gregoire move a live tree to the park site and planted it there so there would be a large community tree that could be decorated for community events.
The tree was lit at Christmas for many years through the early '90s. One year, Brother Asaiah became concerned because of the bark beetle infestation on the Kenai Peninsula. He asked that the tree not have bulbs on it that year. The story went that he had visited with the tree and the tree was feeling stressed and the hot lights would further stress this living tree.
Unfortunately, our dear Brother Asaiah passed on the next year. The community wanted to honor his wishes and did so for many years. Marge Ringer had the gazebo built in the WKFL park as a memorial to her husband, Eric. The lights were shifted to the gazebo so there were bright Christmas lights in the park. Kachemak Bay Rotary Club has volunteered with the tree lighting and gazebo lighting for as long as anyone can remember. The tree has survived the bark beetle and is very healthy.
It was great to get the community together this year to light the community Christmas tree. The retail community of the Homer Chamber of Commerce helped organize and coordinate the celebration as a thank you to this great community that supports us year round. The committee had lots of community support.
A big thank you to Tammy Hagerty, Homer Public Works, for supplying the lights for the tree; the city crew that so carefully placed the lights just right; and Blackberry Bog for the star at the top of the tree. Thanks to the Rotary members for decorating the gazebo and the Homer Volunteer Fire Department for providing transportation for Santa to WKFL park so he could light the tree. Thanks to HEA for donating the power to the park's Christmas lights.
When you look at the tree this Christmas season, let each light represent a sweet memory of past Christmases and the family members you shared them with. Have a joyful Christmas while you make new memories to share.
Kate Mitchell serves on the Retail Committee of the Homer Chamber of Commerce.
We encourage you to add your comments. To prevent spam, comments with links are manually approved during the normal business day. Please be respectful of others with your comments, bear in mind anyone in the community may be reading your comments.
