Community Christmas tree delivered to SKyPAC for holiday season

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Bowling Green received quite a large gift Wednesday morning.

The second annual Christmas tree lighting is happening Dec. 1, but it wouldn’t be complete without this tree. The delivery of a 32-foot tall pine oak tree arrived in downtown Bowling Green at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center.

Jeff Reed, CEO of SKyPAC, shared his excitement for the tree lifting.

“It’s an exciting time,” Reed says. “The tree symbolizes the Christmas season. It’s just the beginning of a really great time for family and great music. It’s one of the best times of the year.”

Creating the Christmas feeling takes a lot of help, so many members of the community pitched in that morning. Bowling Green Municipal Utilities and Twin Bridges Tree Farm, along with the Downtown Development Authority, not only provided the tree, but they also brought the manpower.

Ron Murphy, the executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, tells us what it means to him to be a part of something special like this.

Murphy says, “SKyPAC has brought special things to Bowling Green, and we wanted to be a part of it, we’re grateful that they allowed us to do that. We have worked with the SKyPAC on this project, and it’s our way of saying Merry Christmas to the community and giving our support.”

Along with the support of the community, one artist takes the rubble from the December tornadoes and reshapes the destruction into a star to sit on top of the tree. Randall Erskine, the artist, describes his work of art as something people can experience for the years to come.

Erskine says,  “It just showed how something so catastrophic and devastating can still have such a beautiful thing come out of it. Like all of the people that came and helped. They can look at this as a symbol of the whole community coming together and they can all enjoy it while the whole community is coming together, watching the star be lit up.”

Reed also says the star is ” the icing on the cake,” because officer Matt Davis is lighting the Christmas Tree on Dec. 1 at 5:30 p.m.