By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A little bit of family girl fun led to a $1,500 prize in the Christmas Window Decorating Contest in downtown Great Bend. The Wright Place Flea Market won the grand prize in the fourth annual contest, organized by the Rosewood Roots & Wings Santa Committee. Owner Susan Wright said the "Winter Wonderland" theme started with some spare snowman parts.
"I had the heads my sister had made two or three years ago," she said. "She had brought them up here for me to sell and they didn't sell. I thought maybe we could make something out of them. My daughter helped me and we just got the bright idea."
The window display at 1913 Lakin featured many snowmen of various sizes, snowflakes, reindeer and Christmas lights. The larger snowmen were constructed of a yoga ball, a bag of papers, and a basketball. Most of the items in the display are now for sale. Wright had helpers with some of the more difficult items.
"My daughter and granddaughter helped decorate a lot of the window because I can't get up there and reach a lot of stuff anymore," she said. They hung the lights and all that. I worked on it every day for a while, changing things around and trying to decide what would look best where."
For a fourth year, an anonymous donor provided $3,000 to fund the contest and promote holiday cheer in downtown Great Bend. Bauer Pike Law, 1310 Kansas Ave., won $1,000 for its "Holiday Cheer" theme. Deklyn Craven and Shari Karst, 1218 Main Street, won the People's Choice award of $500 for their "Wandering Woodlands" theme.