Annual Holiday Tree Lighting

The Event

For the 4th Annual Holiday Tree Lighting in 2017, Greg Klesaris rounded up over 30 student staff members who each spent hundreds of hours over many months planning the event. The event had a lot to offer the attendees, included four different performance groups from the Stevens Community, over 2,000 giveaways, and a beautiful spread of cupcakes, gingerbread houses, and a hot chocolate bar. The highlight of the event was the lighting of the 16 foot tall Stevens Tree, as the crowd gathering around the custom built “Big Switch”.

Campus Lights and Event Setup

The lighting of a 55 acre campus is no easy feat. Greg organizes a team of dedicated students and alumni who spend an entire weekend hanging lights. The lights stored on campus are trucked around with coordination from Campus Police to different areas of campus. Once the lights arrive at the location, volunteers hang lights ever so carefully to match the aesthetic and layout Greg approved with the Division of Facilities and Campus Operations. The coordination went all the way up until the event, as Tree Lighting executives made sure the event’s stage looked better than a broadway set.

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