Submitted by Lakewood Chamber of Commerce.
The Lakewood Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce that we will install blue lights for Lakewood’s Nights of Lights for a third year.
To give you some background: Norton Clapp and his wife Mary, developed Lakewood Center (The Colonial Center), one of the first shopping centers west of the Mississippi River. It is rumored that Clapp’s wife’s favorite color was blue. She began decorating the Colonial Center with blue lights during the Christmas season in the mid-1930’s. She inspired owners of nearby shopping centers to follow the color scheme, and by the late 1930’s, blue bulbs symbolized the holiday spirit of community businesses. For decades, people would travel from all over the South Sound to see Lakewood luminous with sparkling blue lights ~ and it became a destination for holiday shoppers.
But they took on new meaning after Nov. 29, 2009, when our four Lakewood police officers were murdered at a Parkland coffee shop. In the weeks after the tragedy, blue lights blazed throughout the region in memory of Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Tina Griswold, Greg Richards and Ronald Owens.
After that horrific event, the Lakewood City Council voted to have blue as the official color of holiday lights for the city.
The point of the holiday blue lights is designed to create a stronger sense of identity and pride among our citizens and help brand our community. For those of you who have a business in the city limits of Lakewood and would like to have lights installed on your building free of charge, contact the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce at 253-582-9400. Or you can install the lights yourself. Just contact the Chamber and request them. Keep in mind, quantities are limited. Lights and installation are on a first-come, first-serve basis. So, get your roofline measurements and get on the Chamber’s list today.
