Decorate once, celebrate twice! The Last Green Valley, Inc. (TLGV) is asking residents and communities to show their support for the National Heritage Corridor by lighting up green for Green Lights between January 15 and March 17, 2013. While the slightly off-kilter midwinter promotion does not begin until after the holidays, installing green lights with holiday lights makes sense. Just turn off other colored lights at the end of the holidays and keep the green ones lit for Green Lights.
Everyone can be part of Green Lights by changing out at least one light bulb with a green-colored, energy efficient one during the winter months. Adapt a multi-colored string of lights or candle lights by changing out bulbs to all green.
“The best aspect of Green Lights is now cheerful it looks! During the cold gray of winter those beautiful green bulbs offer a promise of the spring to come,” noted Charlene Perkins Cutler, TLGV Executive Director & CEO.
Since Green Lights is a regional promotional umbrella, TLGV will be posting events and specials on its calendar of events, both on the website and smart phone apps. Businesses, nonprofits and communities are urged to submit their events, sales, specials and tours for inclusion. One of TLGV’s Walktober walk leaders has planned a special walk on St. Patrick’s Day as a finale for Green Lights. The town of Thompson will be hosted a Green Lights Bonfire this winter.
TLGV welcomes photos of Green Light displays. Send them to Mail@tlgv.org; include your name and the location of the lights. TLGV will put them up on their website,
www.thelastgreenvalley.org.
There will also be an on-line contest where viewers can vote for Best Community Green Lights Display, Best Residential Green Lights Display, and the Most Creative Green Lights Event.
“Participation in last year’s event was remarkable and we look forward to even more Green Lights this winter,” said Cutler. “If municipalities and residents in all 35 towns of the National Heritage Corridor show their green pride, we can make Green Lights a tremendous economic driver for the region. But we need everyone to display their green and submit their events!”
The mid-winter season is traditionally the least significant for tourism. TLGV points out that 26 million people live within two-three hours of The Last Green Valley. Tourism has an economic impact of $234 million annually to the region. Of the 1.67 million visitors to the National Heritage Corridor each year, 74% are day-trippers who return 5.7 times each year. Each one of those visitors spends on average $725 when they come to the region.
Funded in part by a grant from Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of Tourism, Green Lights is being promoted through publications like Yankee, Connecticut Magazine, and the Rhode Island Traveler.
The Last Green Valley is a National Heritage Corridor – the last stretch of dark night sky in the coastal sprawl between Boston and Washington, D.C. A dynamic nonprofit organization, TLGV is a steward of that special place, working to celebrate our heritage, conserve our natural resources and respect our working lands.
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