March 28, 2024

Maytag Park Holiday Lights return bigger, brighter for 2019

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Gingerbread men and women cutouts are stacked against the wall. Strands of lights are waiting to have new bulbs put into them. Scraps of wood and tins of paint sit ready to be transformed into rustic wreaths and trees. And saw dust lightly covers the floor from weeks of working on one-of-a kind displays.

Peeking into the garage where Jamie Murphy prepares for the holidays may just be the closest thing to seeing Santa’s North Pole Headquarters in person.

Murphy is truly the master elf when it comes to the Maytag Park Holiday Light Display which opened for its inaugural season in December 2018.

“Last year‘s response was amazing,” said the Newton Assistant Superintendent of Park Operations. “So many people wanted to donate and help out it was beyond what I ever thought it would be. And it has just continued over into this year. It just makes me so proud to be a part of this community.”

While the idea to decorate the park started out with just a few small displays, a title sponsorship from Clemon-Maki Insurance, support from Friends of Newton Parks along with several businesses and individuals turned the first year display into a new holiday tradition for Newton.

Clemon-Maki Insurance owners Darin Eide, Jeff Maki and Alex Modlin were so impressed by the display in 2018 they immediately said they wanted to be the 2019 title sponsor.

“Jamie, Nick (Cummins) and the whole Newton Parks crew created something that well exceeded what my expectations were for the first year,” Eide said. “Their efforts and commitment created something that Newton should be proud of, and I am extremely excited to see this year’s Maytag Park Holiday Lights. It was a very easy decision for us to be the title sponsor for a second year.”

With some financial support already secured for 2019 before the year even began, Murphy had the freedom to begin planning for a bigger and better display for its second year. She got to work building, painting and planning some unique items.

“My favorite part of working on this project is coming up with new ideas for new displays to do in the future. Pinterest is an amazing and horrible thing all at the same time. I get way more ideas than I know what to do with,” Murphy said. “This year I tried to incorporate some iconic Newton attractions into the displays. We will have an Iowa Speedway display and a drive-in display just to name a couple.”

The project also benefited from an anonymous donor who stepped forward with a $10,000 gift to Friends of Newton Parks to pay for electrical work at the park. The increased voltage meant the addition of more animated lights in areas of the park that previously had no electrical outlets.

“I’m most looking forward this year to having added electricity,” she said. “We had a very generous anonymous donation to help assist us with our electrical issues so now we can bring more to the Christmas display this year.”

Murphy won’t have to wait long to enjoy her labor, as the park lights will be on during the month of December for all to enjoy for free. A special grand opening ceremony will take place Dec. 7, hosted by Clemon-Maki Insurance, City of Newton Parks & Recreation and Friends of Newton Parks.

Newton Parks Operations Superintendent Nick Cummins said he too can’t wait for the display to go live because it is an opportunity for the rest of the community to see the hard work of the entire parks operations staff.

“From what started as a vision and dream of Jamie Murphy has become the reality of a much anticipated second season for the Maytag Park Holiday Lights Display,” Cummins said. “The support of city officials to allow the staff to dedicate time to accomplish this and the hard working parks operations staff buying in, have combined into something that not only Newton, but people from all over have really fallen in love with (the lights). The parks operations staff does a lot of things that are mostly behind the scenes throughout the year but this project is one that all can enjoy.”