Businesses pitch in to help 'Monticello Lights' fundraiser in Delmont

Kelly Mazon and her family are running out of extension cords. Meanwhile, up the street, Zack Bruno is four inflatables deep and just getting started.

The Mazons and Brunos were just two of many families in Delmont’s Monticello neighborhood busy preparing over Thanksgiving weekend for the “Monticello Lights” decorating competition Dec. 11-12, where visitors will determine their favorite holiday display by donating at individual homes from 6 to 9 p.m. each night. The proceeds will benefit the Delmont Volunteer Fire Department as well as Project Bundle Up, but this year there are some additional proceeds in the works.

“Dairy Queen here in Delmont is going to donate 15% of their profits Saturday night to Project Bundle Up, and Sunday night to the fire department,” Mazon said. In addition, officials from Lowe’s in Monroeville donated items that will be part of a surprise.

“I don’t want to give it away, but they donated some items that will help make things even more festive for people driving around the neighborhood,” Mazon said.

One of her neighbors is working on a website that will include an interactive scavenger hunt for those attending the competition, as well as a holiday quiz.

Bruno’s house already lights up the first big dip leading into the neighborhood, with purple rainbow LED icicle lights on the roof eaves, a yard full of inflatables that’s also partially blanketed in color-changing lights — and he’s not done yet.

“I have more lights and more inflatables on the way,” Bruno said, adding with a nod of his head: “Santa Claus riding a dinosaur.”

Mazon guessed she and her family spent about eights hour a day from Friday through Monday getting their yard display situated.

“We have extension cords going into windows. It’s crazy,” she said. “We ended up with so many lights in the yard that we accidentally used them all. So right now, I have no lights for my Christmas tree!”

For more, see MonticelloLights.com.