The Paul Maillard Business and Arts Initiative will hold its first Christmas in the Park event at Monsanto Park in Luling on Dec. 2 from noon to 6 p.m.
The community event, held at the park’s location on River Road and Sugarhouse Road, is open to the public and will include several activities including a fun run, food vendors on site, live oak tree lighting, Santa appearance, and various games for kids.
The event’s two-mile fun run will begin around 4 p.m., with the course being run on the paved top of the nearby Mississippi River levee. Runner registration will take place on the date of the event prior to the run.
Local businessowner and Paul Maillard Business and Arts Initiative board member Jenny Lendle mentioned several local school running clubs and teams are already set to participate in the fun run component of the Christmas in the Park event.
“They’ll run to the bridge and back, and we figure by the time everyone’s back in the park, the sun will be setting, and we can light the oaks,” Lendle mentioned.
The lighting of Monsanto Park’s sizeable live oak trees, which the Paul Maillard Business and Arts Initiative has acquired funding for via local sponsors, will be the capstone of the event at dusk.
“We will graft the oak trees in permanent LED lighting, so that they will be lit up all year long,” Lendle said.
The lighting project was put together in partnership with St. Charles Parish Government, Lendle said, which helped the group to get the proper electrical components in place.
The Paul Maillard Business and Arts Initiative is a local nonprofit organization that first began around two years ago when several community leaders came together to organize a Paul Maillard area art mural. The group later began collaborating, organizing other projects and special events to promote economic growth and community involvement surrounding the Paul Maillard Road area of St. Charles Parish.
Lendle says the group hopes to continue its work by bringing in additional art installations throughout Paul Maillard Road and the Old Luling area.
“The whole initiative is geared towards bringing back [the Paul Maillard Road and Old Luling area] … community events are one way we’ve been doing that, as well as our art show and now with Christmas in the Park,” Lendle said.
For more information on the upcoming event, visit the Paul Maillard Business and Arts Initiative’s website at www.pmbusinessandarts.org or via the nonprofit’s Facebook page.
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