By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The city of Great Bend has its Trail of Lights at Jack Kilby Square, Brit Spaugh Park, and Veterans Memorial Park. Some Great Bend residents near Vets Lake have added to the holiday festivities with a trail of waving Santas on 19th Street between Polk and McKinley. MelEesa Stueder said she got the idea from another community.
“I saw it last December in a news article,” she said. “A town in another state had done this. They just started out small, and the neighboring neighborhoods just kept expanding. They had, I think, 42 at one point when this article was done. They were just so cute that I thought I would see if our neighbors would be interested.”
Stueder made some phone calls and the neighbors overwhelmingly supported the project. She began purchasing 24 giant blow-up Santas in August, but ran into problems as the item sold out and sales were limited to two per buyer. Various friends stepped in to help sidestep the limit.
“I would really like to see this, as this other town did, expand to other streets nearby,” said Stueder. “I’ve already had someone reach out to me from a street just around the corner who wanted to know where they could get one. I think it would be lovely if the entire McKinley addition had giant blow up Santa Clauses.”
The Santas are spread throughout the lawns on the north and south sides of McKinley, just east of Veterans Lake. Stueder said the biggest obstacle has been the Kansas wind, so the Santas may be deflated on those especially windy winter days.