Christmas 2016 seems like a lifetime ago. In fact, I can’t figure out if my hair grows twice as fast as it used to, or if time is passing at the speed of light. I suspect the latter.
Last year, a Missouri man, named Jeff Webb, decked out his house in Christmas lights.
Here, in the American South, we joke about our neighbors who leave their lights up all year—so Webb’s efforts didn’t strike me as out of the ordinary. Until I investigated a little further. Webb put up 20,000 lights on his house and then synced them to holiday music. The kicker? At the foot of his driveway is a donation box, and it’s not there to support his electric bill. Nope. He is raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in honor of his nephew, Matthew Hale, Jr., who has CF.
Young Matthew isn’t alone.
According to the CFF, 30,000 Americans have this progressive degenerative lung disease, and the worldwide number jumps to 70,000. So the development of new and better treatments is critically important.
But that doesn’t happen without research dollars.
Webb has hosted the intricate light display for several years now, with a family member matching contributions collected. And it looks like he’ll host the spectacular show, called Lights at the Lake, again in 2017. If you happen to be in the area next Christmas, check it out!
If Jeff Webb was my neighbor, he could keep his Christmas lights up ALL YEAR, and I would never make fun of him!
For more info on CF, visit our cystic fibrosis partners here and here.
