Hi Everyone!

My name is Scott Malo and I am responsible for decorating Monson for the holidays. We took over this responsibility 4 years ago and have steadily added new decorations and have added new locations to decorate throughout Main St. My elves are my family and friends and while it is a lot of work, we enjoy doing it as we love this town and the people that call Monson home.

Now, I have started this campaign and this has no direct affiliation with the Town of Monson. I do receive a generous amount each year from the Selectboard and I am grateful for that each year. The commercial decorations are expensive so any amount of funding is much appreciated. There have also been many private donations from Monson Savings Bank, Beth's family Dining and a number of other very nice people who like to see the town decorated which is amazing. I am trying to raise some additional funding for a few reasons. Let me explain.

I have been collaborating with Mr. Mike Angelica, an electrician and Monson resident who has been generous with his time. He continues to support our efforts through his electrical expertise as well the photocells that we have been adding each year which allows for all the lights to come on at the same time each day. These photocell set-ups are not cheap but they are so welcome to us as we do not need to rely on timers which lose their programming all the time and are not reliable. Mike and I will continue to add photocell set-ups until each location has one. They are portable and an elegant solution to a problem that has frustrated me for years. I should also mention John Beaudoin as John was also instrumental in restoring the telephone pole devices.

You have also seen more ground decorations that really add to the display that we are building. Ground decorations are an easy set up and take down and really look good. I have a vision for different areas throughout town and by adding ground decorations, I have some theme ideas for each spot without it getting out of hand. Too much can be overkill and we want to cognizant of that. Ground decorations are expensive but worth it. They are constructed well and we take good care of them for years of use.

Of course we continue to replace telephone pole decorations. There are still a number of older ones that will be replaced as we go and those are expensive as well.

We have some new ideas that we are kicking around. Perhaps a Christmas concert at Memorial Hall to kick off the holiday season? Maybe a spot where families can take some pictures with a special decoration we working on? These are all things we are brainstorming and will do what we can based on the funds we have available.

Please know this and this should go without saying but, any donations, every single penny, goes into the display and anything associated with the holiday decorations. I have put an ambitious target and would love to see it go sailing past that if we can. I know with Covid and the craziness that has been the last few years, excess funds are hard to come by. Anyone that donates, we appreciate it very much and will continue to make the display better each year!

Thank you all!

Scott