Going on for about three decades is the ever-evolving Winter Spirit event in Lewiston, Idaho's Locomotive Park.
What started as a vision in the mind of Larry Kopczynski is now a centerpiece of the holiday season in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley.
Larry Kopczynski is a licensed electrical engineer and currently serves as an investment representative.
On the Winter Spirit website, an article from the early 2000s says it all started with Kopczynski sketching an idea to light up the train engine at Locomotive Park... on a napkin.
“You know, it's a good excuse to be a child again."
Up to 800,000 LED lights cover that train this year and almost every tree in the park. Included with that is the lighted arch walkway, bright dancing penguins, a lighted igloo — and even a fireplace to warm up.
Christine is a local in the area and has been going to Winter Spirit for almost 20 years.
“You know, it's a good excuse to be a child again and act like a child,” she said. “So, I'd say, like every year with my sisters, it's really fun to run around and goof around, and it just gives you an excuse to be young.”
All the wonders behind this spectacular spectacle do come with challenges though.
The number of volunteers has dwindled over the years, making it hard for Kopczynski to have a consistent schedule for setting up lights.
“We would love to get 30 people every weekend,” said Kopczynski. “We do it for six weeks, but we maybe get 10. So, it puts a lot of work on all of us. But yeah, we need 30 to 40 people. We need people that are willing to be down there week after week to understand what we do and make sure it happens.”
Parking has also been one of the main concerns. Near the park, right at the north entrance to Lewiston’s historic downtown Main Street, there isn’t much space for vehicles to enter.
Kopczynski says some people have to park further away and then some don’t use the crosswalks – making the busy area dangerous for drivers and park visitors.
“We've tried to put up fencing that helps a little bit, but people will still jump that fence and cross at a bad location, and it's very dangerous,” said Kopczynski.
Despite the few dilemmas, thousands of people visit the display every year.
Kopczynski said a favorite memory of his is when he was fixing some lights and a mother and daughter came by and told him how much they enjoyed the music.
“They said this is the first time we've heard about this Christmas music since we were children,” he said. “And they were just very grateful. So that little act of gratitude kept us going, and it still does, the fact that we get a lot of grateful responses from the community. It's just been wonderful.”
The Winter Spirit event has now become a family tradition.
Brieanna Story, from Lewiston, said growing up, her family would come here all the time, and now she looks to do the same with her own.
“So I think it was just a tradition from them and they just started bringing us when we were little, and it was something that we always looked forward to every year as kids,” said Story. “And so now I look forward to bringing my kids”
Winter Spirit lights up Locomotive Park from now until the first week of January.
Brian Vega is a Voces intern working in NWPB’s newsroom. Voces Internship of Idaho is an equity-driven internship program that strives to bring in new and needed voices to Idaho's news landscape by opening doors for young Latino Idahoans to get professional paid experience to kick-start their careers.