Belt makers among longest tenured vendors at Fort Ligonier Days

For more than four decades, Maureen and Fred Light watched the crowds grow as Fort Ligonier Days blossomed from a small-town fall street festival to a weekend event that draws tens of thousands of visitors.

Under sun-drenched skies with red and brown leaves drifting down from the trees, the Lights worked away at the craft booth they’ve occupied just north of the Diamond selling belts, wallets and other leather accessories. The Lights’ Leather Crafters shop has been a staple at Fort Ligonier Days since 1979, making them among the longest-tenured vendors at the festival.

“It hasn’t been a lot bigger than this,” Maureen said.

The Lights are from Lebanon County and first came to Fort Ligonier Days at the urging of a relative who lives in town. They’ve returned every fall, other than in 2020, when the event was canceled because of the pandemic.

Crowds lined the streets and the center of Ligonier on Saturday afternoon following the parade through the borough that serves as one of the centerpieces of the weekend festival.

Fort Ligonier Days board member Bill Stablein, who for years served as event chairman, said this year’s festival was among the largest crowds he has seen.

More than 40,000 people were expected to come Saturday. Another big crowd is expected for its final day on Sunday.

“It’s amazing that such as small town can digest this big of a crowd,” Stablein said.

The large crowds mean a steady flow of business for vendors such as the Lights, whose small shop sells handcrafted belts that are custom fit and sized on the spot for customers.

Jarrod Jeschonek and his teenage son, Gage, were among the dozens of customers who waited in line for a fitting.

Jeschonek was there to replace a black belt he purchased from the Lights about a decade ago.

“These are the best belts. There’s nothing like them,” said Jeschonek, of Westmoreland City. “My father brought me here to get belts, and now I’m bringing my 16-year-old son.”

Dustin Felker drove up to Ligo­nier from his home in West Virginia and found the Leather Crafters booth. He bought a black belt that he said he’ll use as part of his emergency medical technician uniform.

“I like to go to arts and heritage festivals around the county, and I saw them here,” Felker said. “It’s a ‘must-do.’ ”

Despite making annual trips to Ligonier, crafting and selling leather belts wasn’t originally the Lights’ plan.

Fred Light said he first spotted the tools of the trade because they “looked interesting.” He bought them at a hobby shop just before he enlisted in the Navy. The tools sat unused for a few years, but Fred Light eventually rediscovered them while looking for a hobby after getting married.

The Lights began selling their wares at local arts and crafts festivals. Over the years, they attended about a dozen or more each year even as Fred continued to work full time as an electrical engineer.

Since they retired a few years ago, the Lights scaled back their travel. They appear at only a handful of festivals annually but make two stops each year in Westmoreland County: at Fort Ligonier Days and the Westmoreland Arts and Heritage Festival in the summer at Twin Lakes Park.

“We just like doing this. It’s very satisfying to make a product people appreciate,” Maureen Light said. “We’ve had a lot of fun, and it’s great to meet people who seem to appreciate our belts.”