Page Editor: Troy Roberts, 754-0427


LAKE CITY REPORTER


LIFE


SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2009


                                                   JASON MATTHEW WALKER.L i Uily Reporter                                                        COuuRcI T rP-Hnui

Serenading the crowd                                                           Despang completes West Point boot camp
Tony Buzzella plays Eddie Miller's 'Street of Dreams' for Gussie Henderson (from left), Diane  Former Columbia High School JROTC member Adam Despang poses with his sister, Sara
George and Claretha Bradley Wednesday night at the Golden Age Christmas Party at the  South, at the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York on Aug. 15. Despang
LifeStyle Enrichment Center.                                                   successfully completed boot camp and has been classified as a cadet at the ceremony.


LIGHTS: For the holiday season


Continued From Page 1L
factor in the light creations.
  Ruth Behrenwald said
she draws out the design
for the structures, and then
Bill Behrenwald makes
the structure based on his
wife's drawings.
  "I get my ideas for
my drawings from col-
oring books, Sunday
School lessons or just my
imagination," said Ruth
Behrenwald. .
  Ruth Behrenwald also
said creating these lit
structures gave her hus-
band something interesting
and different to do.
  "He's always wanted to
do something just to see
if he could do'it," Ruth
Behrenwald said.
  Both Bill and Ruth
Behrenwald have achieved
success through their


homemade light struc-
tures, and said they have
been making and selling
them since 1993.
  Bill and Ruth Behrenwald
  said they've sold their
  Christmas fixtures to
  people in 17 or 18 different-
  states including Alaska and
  have some of their fixtures
  in Canada, too.
  Ruth Behrenwald said
  that a couple from Canada
  flew down to the Lake City
  area one year, and wanted
  to buy one of their holiday
  light fixtures, so they flew
  the light fixture they pur-
  chased back with them.
  Bill Behrenwald said
  he used to make between
1,200 to 1,500 light struc-
tures a year and now
makes them only accord-
ing to order, but at one


point he and his wife were
selling 125 different fix-
tures for their holiday line.
  "Anything. that you could
imagine we've made on
the Christmas line," Bill
Behrenwald said, includ-
ing helicopters, merry-go-
rounds and Cinderella and
her pumpkin coach.
  "You've got to make
what people want," said Bill-
Behrenwald.
  Ruth Behrenwald said
,that what she and her hus-
band have enjoyed most
about their business is the
people they've met along
the way.
  '"We've met a lot of
people through doing this,"
Ruth Behrenwald said.
"That's what we miss the
most about doing business,
meeting all these people."


Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer grazes along with a group of reindeer at the Roberts
residence..


HOLIDAY SIGHTS FROM AROUND COLUMBIA COUNTY


                                                                                                                           PHOTOS BY JASON MATTHEW WALKERIL;�: ,H, l'. :..'
(LEFT) A nativity scene is reflected in a retention pond along Bascom Norris Driv6. (TOP RIGHT) Angels spread holiday cheer through Christmas songs at the Wheeler residence. (BOTTOM
RIGHT) A Christmas tree, wreaths, 3-D animated reindeer and other holiday decorations adorn the front porch of Herbet and Ann Darby's home at 1118 S. Marion Ave.


                                                                                                                           PHOTOS BY JASON MATTHEVW WALKER- ,i. .'"
(TOP LEFT) Santas, nutcrackers, snowmen and angels populate the front lawn of Patsy and Mike Roberts home, located at 619 SW County Road 242. (BOTTOM LEFT) Christmas
ornaments dangle off of a rotating Christmas tree in the front lawn of Ruben Gruda's home at 199 SW Courtesy Way. (RIGHT) Visitors can drive through to view a nativity scene,and other
holiday displays at the Roberts' home.


y Reporter