SHERRI MOORE NAMED SENIOR ADVISOR TO MONONGAH CHRISTMAS STREET LIGHTS COMMITTEE

 

Sherri Moore has been named senior advisor to Monongah Christmas Street Lights committee president Susan Staron Sanders, Class of 1971.

 

Sherri is a 1985 graduate of Fayetteville High School in West Virginia. She moved there her senior year to help care for her sick aunt.

 

Sherri originally is from Fairmont. She has three children -- Kristin, Justin and Frank -- and grandchildren Sophia, Ashlyn, Fairmont West senior Nevaeh, Milly, Presley (will be born any time now) and Bailey, who passed away at birth.  

 

She owns her own cleaning company, All About Cleaning, and once owned a restaurant in Parkersburg.  

 

Sherri said, after my prompting: “My favorite memory is decorating at Christmas time with my mama who has just passed this November. She is the reason I love Christmas so much (besides it being the birth of Our Savior).”

 

Her favorite place in her travels is Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas, also known as Little San Salvador Island. It’s a tiny private island accessible by cruise ships (and passengers with their money). It is overflowing with birdlife and has Stingray Cove, a lagoon enclosure, teeming with stingrays.

 

Monongah’s legendary Christmas street lights, all 64 of them, will coming down Saturday, January 14, to be stored safely away for another Christmas season.

 

Louise Linn is replacing Chrissy Shaver as secretary of what I call The Charge of the Lights Brigade because Chrissy is swamped starting up her own business. Susan is president and founder. Carolyn Tice is vice president. Linda McCullough is treasurer.

 

Susan describes Josh Scritchfield as “my right-hand man. He’s always there for me.” Josh is a Monongah fireman.

 

Susan added: “Chuck Tice also is my assistant. He works for Toothman & Sowers as a mechanic. He also in charge of putting up the lights, taking them down and fixing whatever they need.”

 

Susan’s volunteers include Teena Field Ailstock, Amber Wycoff, Beth Campbell, Amanda Hawkins and her father Robert Hawkins and Louise Linn.

 

It takes an army to deal with the 64 Monongah Christmas street lights that astronauts can see from space and an angel to lead them. Nothing this miraculous happens by accident.

 

Maybe Susan should promote Monongah as The Brightest Christmas Town in America, contact the West Virginia promotions department to spread the word. Like the baseball field in Iowa, if people know about it they will come . . . from all over America every Christmas.

 

Because of the burden of maintaining the lights ($1,570.55 for brackets for the 24 lights White Hall donated to Monongah) and paying the $3,271.94 electric bill ($4,842.49 combined for the electric and new brackets) to make them light up the town, Susan said, “We will not be ordering any more lights. One reason is the expense. The other is no help. This is a lot of work and I no longer want my board members out there doing all of the work. We have health problems and shouldn’t be out there anyway.”

 

You don’t have 64 huge Christmas street lights in a town with fewer than 1,000 people without a lot of money donations and volunteers for the labor.

 

Susan added: “This is why it’s very important for volunteers to help us. The more help we have the faster things gets done.

 

“You all love the lights (indeed!). So please step up and help us.”

 

Already-high expenses grew even more with the requirement to buy brackets for the 22 new lights that Whitehall gave Monongah.