Riverside Chamber of Commerce holds annual Christmas tree Walk

RIVERSIDE - Thirty-three trees were all aglow at Copper Ridge Creek for Riverside residents and other locals to enjoy, during Riverside Chamber of Commerce's first event - the Christmas Tree Walk.

The event opened last weekend on Dec. 14 and Dec. 15, and will run the following weekend as well from 4 to 8 p.m.

Rusty Rogerson, the acting president of the chamber, explained that the idea for the event came about 45 days ago, just 15 days after the chamber was established. Many of the trees were donated by local businesses and members of the chamber.

'When we were discussing what we could do to get the community involved in the chamber, we wanted to do one big event in the winter and one in the summer … so the idea for this came 45 days ago and we put out a word that we were looking for donated Christmas trees and ornaments,” Rogerson said. The president explained that the chamber purchased very few new items and were able to use donated goods or made an effort to shop at secondhand stores in order to decorate the trees.

The group worked all week to get all the trees decorated and businesses who sponsored a tree set up the Friday before the event opened up. Between the two weekends, the chamber is expecting about 300 people to show up and take a walk around the room of trees.

Mary Lue Ogilviel, a Riverside resident, came out to the event to support her friend, Chrissy Marthers, who decorated one of the trees and because she 'loves Christmas trees.”

'We like to decorate the house, every room is Christmas,” Ogilviel said.

'Well, just look, everybody's coming out to see and visiting and everything. I like it,” the Riverside resident added about how the Christmas tree walk has brought the town of 1,000 together.

The event was also a huge hit with younger residents as well. 5-year-old Zeke Feickert, roamed around the open space, pointing to a tree decorated with construction materials and pointed to a toy truck placed at the bottom.

'This one is my favorite,” he said, as he eyed the truck.

Zeke's mother, Jasmine Swantz, the vice president of the chamber, explained that being part of the event has allowed her to channel her creative energy toward a fun event.

'I'm a little bit like the Grinch,” she said about her feelings toward Christmas.

'Pulling this event together, it was kind of like, ‘I can't believe we pulled it off.'” Swantz said. 'It brings businesses together and spreads positivity.”

'It was a team effort. And it's actually made me really excited. It's fun and so beautiful and makes me not-so-grinch-like about Christmas,” the vice president continued.

While the turnout and support has been great, the chamber hopes to continue to grow the event with more trees and even more businesses.

'It came together so seamlessly … we want this to be an annual thing. We originally had a space picked on in the downtown area but … we realized we needed more space, which is why we moved it to the [Copper Ridge Creek] … we want even more people and businesses to join us and have fun,” the vice president concluded.