• • Jackson County Pilot

Christmas was on the minds of Lakefield Business Association members last week as they set a date for a combined Santa Night and Christmas Open House event and kicked off the 2009 Christmas Cash program.

Santa Night and the Christmas Open Houses will take place in downtown Lakefield the evening of Thursday, Dec. 3. Many businesses will offer extended hours and specials that evening.

The date was set at the Nov. 4 LBA meeting.

For Santa Night, Fitzloff Photography will again be taking photos of the little ones with Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Multi-purpose Center from 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 3, and the Lakefield Girl Scouts will be entertaining those waiting for their photo with a holiday craft or two.

Additionally, LBA businesses will be collecting food items for the food shelf again this year. For each item donated, the person making the donation will get a ticket for a chance at one of the prizes in a drawing that night.

LBA board member Tonia Bandy agreed to take on the leadership of the Christmas Open House effort and sought input from former leaders of those two events as to just what needs to be done in preparation.

Suggestions from former chair of the Christmas Open House Committee, Allison Hendrickson, included offering tickets to customers at the LBA businesses so they might register to win prizes during the LBA Christmas Open House. She also noted that in the past baskets had been made up as prizes for that event, but last year the winners were awarded Christmas Cash instead.

Donna Hendrickson suggested businesses that wished to do so offer a 10 to 20 percent discount on certain items at their stores for the open houses as an incentive for people to come shop at that time.

Former Lakefield business owner Darrell Nissen was a guest at the Nov. 4 meeting and spoke on behalf of the Lakefield Kiwanis inquiring about the possibility of displaying one of the many bicycles that had been donated to the local Kiwanis/Lions clubs for recycling at their businesses as a special Christmas raffle prize to be given away this year at each store.

Dudley Hussong, LBA and Kiwanis member, also commented that with the bicycle recycling effort many nice bicycles had been donated that were in good shape and working order with little if anything actually being needed to make them ready for giving.

The LBA agreed to take part in the bicycle raffle give-a-way, but Hussong added that both the Kiwanis and Lions clubs would have to formally approve it before they could move forward on the project.

LBA President Dewayne Hage announced that it had been advertised in the newspaper that Christmas Cash was now available, adding even though the ad had put a limitation on the amount of Christmas Cash a family could purchase at $300, the banks had agreed to let people know the limit was actually $400 this year.