Each year, upwards of 20,000 people gather in Historic Downtown Cochrane to kick off the Christmas season at the annual Cochrane Light Up.
But In order to make the event so special, organizers need some extra help from the community.
Chris Heier, chair of the Cochrane Light Up organizing committee says they're looking for volunteers.
"There's going to be all sorts of opportunities for volunteering, both during the event itself as well as leading up to the event. You know, anytime you've got an opportunity to ask your friends to get involved in volunteering, we're pretty much at that point, we need to get some numbers and people that are interested."
It's a big year for the largest annual event in Cochrane as they're celebrating the 40th anniversary and they want to make sure it's a special one, says Heier.
"We're trying to see about getting a rave stage out there. We're looking into various other entertainment options, and starting to do some outreach to get more engagement with the Indigenous community as well, but definitely want to be putting a lot more of a focus around entertainment."
Some of the volunteer roles available include:
- Check in/Info Booth/Lost Child
- Hot Dog Delivery
- Parking/Traffic
- Barricades
- Garbage Management
- Roaming Characters
- Runners (Hot Chocolate)
- Hayride Wagon/Line Management
- Clean Up Post Event
Those interested in volunteering can sign up HERE.
Organizers are encouraging event goers to bring their own cups to enjoy their hot chocolate in. Last year the committee teamed up with local businesses to offer a special Light Up cup.
"We did go with reusable cups with the intention of encouraging people to reuse them, so absolutely bring out last year's cups. We intentionally didn't provide any dating on the cups. We still have cups available from last year as well that we'll be providing to some of the hot chocolate vendors to be able to either sell or give away to people that forgot to bring their own cup or whatever they want to drink hot chocolate out of."
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Cochrane Light Up goes green for 2023
Cochrane Light Up will go Saturday, November 23 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Historic Downtown Cochrane.