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Christmas lights adorn Ken Gallant’s home and yard like stars in The Milky Way. Glowing, shining, and colourful, they bounce to classic Christmas tunes, and battle for centre stage.
“We’re at about 80,000 lights and about 40 plus creatures and growing,” the St. Norbert – Seine River man said. Believe it or not, that’s the scaled back version of his set-up compared to a couple years ago.“We were at over 100,000 lights,” he said. “We’ll see what the future brings.”Gallant started extravagantly dressing his home in this bright Christmas glory about 15 years ago. After three years, another light flickered on — this time, an idea even the Grinch couldn’t sour at. “I remember somebody asking me if, at that time, if I was taking donations. At the time I wasn’t. So that’s when I picked Make-A-Wish Canada for a charity to use for the lights,” he said.
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He calls them “Ken’s Christmas Lights for Hope,” and, over 12 years, has raised nearly $30,000 for Make-A-Wish, which is an organization helping critically ill kids live out their wishes.He keeps a donation box on his driveway, but also has a QR code directing spectators to donate online.Gallant said Christmas donations have dwindled, but he’s still dedicated to the cause.“Whatever we make is more than they had before we started. So, yeah, we do what we can,” he said.It’s hard work getting ready for the season. “I would say altogether probably close to 100 hours it takes me. I do maybe an hour or two every day for a few months. So yeah, this year probably cost 200 hours to construct them,” he said.
But, Gallant still isn’t deterred — motivated by his love for his own kids.“I’ve got two healthy children. But at the same time, you never know. Anything can happen. So, I think if I can, first of all, show my kids that giving back is important, and if we can raise some money to help a sick child … it’s definitely all worth it.”He said his lights shine into the night, much like Rudolph’s nose, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weeknights and to 12 a.m. on weekends.“We’ll probably have them up till early January,” Gallant said.But Gallant reminds donations are acceptable at any time through Make-A-Wish’s website, and encourages everyone to give back — even if it’s not a donation.“Just be kind, be generous and, you know, give back if you can … Even volunteering, or reaching out to a loved one,” he said. “We need more people to be thoughtful and nice to everybody. (It) goes a long way.”
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