26th Annual Tree Lighting December 2
The event, emceed by Yonkers Board of Education President Reverend Stephen Lopez, will start with Troop 12 Yonkers Boy Scouts leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
We are honored to have nationally recognized Yonkers sculptor Vinnie Bagwell light our community Christmas tree. Ms. Bagwell, created the first public artwork of an a contemporary African American woman for a US municipality, “The First Lady of Jazz Ella Fitzgerald” near the Yonkers train station. Most recently Yonkers celebrated the opening of her Enslaved Africans Rain Garden on Water Grant Street to commemorate the legacy of the first enslaved Africans to be manumitted by law in the United States, more than 60 years before the Emancipation Proclamation.
Leading the caroling will be Dawn Doherty, Frankie McCormick and members of the award winning Aisling Irish Ballad Group. `
Perhaps most exciting, Santa Claus, our favorite resident of the North Pole, may visit us us that evening!
The evening will be capped by delicious hot chocolate, courtesy of Homefield Deli on Saw Mill River Road.
UPAC asks attendees to open their hearts to support our annual toy drive for the children in the Rising Ground Foster Care Program.
The Untermyer Performing Arts Council is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to continuing the tradition of Minnie and Samuel Untermyer, bringing free musical entertainment to our treasure of a park and the people of Yonkers and beyond throughout the year.
This program will be done in cooperation with Mayor Mike Spano and the Yonkers Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation. The Ira Goldman Memorial Fund, Senators Andrea Stewart Cousins and Shelley Mayer, Assemblymember Nader Sayegh, and other generous supporters provide funding for this program.
For further information about future UPAC programs and events, please call the Untermyer Performing Arts Council’s ArtsLine at 914-375-3435, visit our social media pages or check our website www.untermyerperformingarts.org
