SGTC set to go bigger, brighter for second annual Light Up Your Future event

Published 4:33 pm Wednesday, November 29, 2017

From Staff Reports

AMERICUS — South Georgia Technical College (SGTC) invites the community to see the SGTC campus “as you’ve never seen it before,” on Thursday during its second annual Light Up Your Future event. The event will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Tom Gailey Park in the center of the college’s Americus campus.
The holiday-themed event will feature inflatable slides and bouncers, holiday music performed by local school and community groups, a gourmet hot chocolate bar, a free photo booth, a live remote broadcast from 98.7 WISK, Christmas light displays throughout the campus, a visit from Santa Claus and his elves and a special “light-up” gift for young visitors. Visitors can see and touch John Deere tractors, Caterpillar heavy equipment machinery, 18-wheel trucks, the Aaron’s Rents 99 Race Car, see an ambulance and law enforcement cars, an airplane and more.
SGTC President John Watford, Ed.D., says that while the first year of the event was very successful, he hopes it will continue to grow and serve as a fun holiday-kickoff for the community.
“The Light Up Your Future event was an incredible success last year,” Watford said. “I challenged the South Georgia Technical College team to think outside of the box and come up with a creative way to engage the community, and they came through in stellar fashion. This year we hope to grow upon that success and go bigger and better than last year.  The instructors have really outdone themselves and have been very creative in inventing ways to showcase their programs in lights!”
SGTC has already shown promise in that area, ordering more lights and planning for the event to be held in a larger area of the campus than the previous year — which will now include having displays in and around the brand new Morgan Transportation Building. Santa and his elves will be inside the Transportation Building and The Image Company will be taking photos of the young visitors with Santa.
Each individual program area and student organization at SGTC will create a unique lighted display to highlight the different opportunities the area offers in a fun and festive way.
“We wanted to do something fun and creative to showcase what we [SGTC] have to offer in the way of outstanding educational opportunities,” Watford said. “Additionally, we wanted to give back to the community and host a fun, kid-friendly holiday event that everyone can enjoy for free. We hope everyone will come out and kickoff their holiday season with us.”