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People gather around the community Christmas tree at Town Square Nov. 26 during the annual tree lighting ceremony. The Havre Area Chamber of Commerce is reviving its HART project - Havre Area Renewal Trust - to raise money for projects including replacing bulbs and getting light to other trees in Town Square. People can donate into water bottles at the counters of participating businesses through October.
From Havre Area Chamber of Commerce
Havre Area Renewal Trust - HART - is a program that was introduced in 2000 by a group of Havre Area Chamber of Commerce member businesses led by Janine Donoven to raise funds for projects.
The main projects in 2000 and 2009 were to raise funds to refurbish the community holiday pole decorations and have funds to purchase replacement bulbs for the decorations and community tree lights. The 2000 campaign raised more than $4,000 to purchase the 18 new pole decorations, refurbish existing ones and update power to the original 28 poles.
The 2009 campaign brought in more than $4,500 to purchase the 21 new candy cane ornaments on First Street and new lights for the community tree.
The Chamber board is revitalizing the HART Project this summer, as the board starts planning for this year's holiday celebration.
In the fundraiser, participating businesses will have a water bottle on their counter in which customers can to donate any spare change or other monetary funds. Money will be collected from the bottles once a month by members of the Chamber board and deposited into the Christmas Special Project Funds account. The fundraiser will run through October.
The projects chosen include purchasing replacement bulbs for the 40 pole decorations. Each holiday season, board members and community volunteers help to clean the ornaments and replace more than 500 broken bulbs. This expense each year has been covered by the Chamber. In 2016, the board started to convert from the standard colored bulb to LED bulbs.
The other project chosen by the Board is to get power to each tree in the Town Square, thus making it possible to have lights on all the trees in the Square during the holiday season.
The Christmas season in Havre, which includes the decorations provided by the Chamber that are put up throughout downtown, has a major kickoff each year with the tree lighting ceremony at Town Square, which includes Santa lighting the tree and talking, along with Mrs. Claus, to children. The celebration also has caroling, hot chocolate and prizes.
Donations to the HART bottles or a donation check to the project will help the board realize its goal to improve the decorations for the upcoming Christmas season. Checks can be written to the Havre Chamber, Box 308, Havre, MT 59501.
People's help will brighten up the community for the holidays.
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