Lighting for Chicago official Christmas tree is Wednesday
Bob Roberts Reporting
WBBM Newsradio 780
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- The lights on Chicago's downsized official Christmas Tree will be lit late this afternoon for the first time this holiday season.
Mayor Daley is urging those who attend the ceremony to bring a can of food for those who have none.
Collection bins will be placed at the four corners of Daley Plaza, with the non-perishable items going to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
"This has been a year of extraordinary need," said the Depository's executive director, Kate Maehr. "We have seen so many people turning to this network for food that in September we broke a record."
Maehr said 427,000 individuals sought assistance from the more than 600 food pantries and soup kitchens that the Depository assists.
Maehr said the food was on hand, but said the supply needs to be replenished constantly. The Depository accepts both canned and packaged items, but Maehr said the need is just as great for cash and credit card donations to help buy fresh fruit and vegetables.
The tree itself is a testament to the times.
For the first time since at least 1955, the city has decided to forego the construction of an official "tree" that is in reality formed from more than 100 smaller trees, a process that took three weeks and cost more than $300,000 to piece together and decorate. Instead, the Weivoda family of Palos Heights donated the single 55-foot tree.
The tree won't have the usual lavish array of outsized ornaments; officials from the Mayor's Office of Special Events said they are simply too heavy for the tree. But it will still sport the year-old blanket of 7,000 LED lights donated by Underwriters' Laboratories.
Decorating this year has taken two weeks.
The ceremony will begin at 4 p.m. and scheduled to end with the lighting of the tree at 4:30 p.m.
The Chicago Children's Choir will sing, along with cast members of the Goodman Theatre's production of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."
But mayoral clout still counts for something. Santa Claus will be on hand to help throw the switch.
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