The Beginning of a Light Display
 Overly's Country Christmas® is a nationally-recognized holiday light
display that has been featured on "Good Morning America" and other ABC,
NBC, and CBS affiliated television programs. In 1983 Good Housekeeping
Magazine named Overly's Country Christmas®
one of America's Best Outdoor Light Displays.
The display had its early beginnings 40
odd years ago when Harry Overly first decorated his rural Armbrust home
with just a few strands of lights. Most people would have been content
stopping right there, but encouraged by the delight of his four children
his vision only began.
 "The kids like it," was all
Harry Overly would tell anyone as they watched the light display grow. And
he wasn't content with hanging strands of lights from the eaves of his
house and in the bushes. It was his attention to detail that made the
difference. Lights were meticulously intertwined in the branches of trees
and strung in perfect rows along miles of fence that outlined his
property.
Harry was
one of the first people to add animation to his displays, now a hallmark
of Overly's Country Christmas®. Over the
years the Overly home and surrounding seven acres became a showcase, first
attracting neighbors, and then people from nearby communities, and later
people from all over the region.
Soon those same neighbors and friends
wanted to become involved; they volunteered to play Santa and Mrs. Claus,
and local young people dressed as elves to hand out lollipops to the
children in passing cars. Many a child driving by was convinced that
indeed, this was where Santa and Mrs. Claus lived.
Then one year, when Harry himself was
dressed as Santa Claus, a woman handed him a dollar in appreciation for
the marvelous light display that brought so much joy to her children.
Harry explained that there was no charge to see the lights, and the woman
replied, "Well give it to your favorite charity!"
That simple recommendation was the seed
that sparked the vision of the light display someday becoming a major
charitable fund-raiser, but for what cause?
The answer came without hesitation.
Harry knew immediately that the light display could only be used to
benefit children's causes. During the 35 years that the light display was
held at the Overly home nearly one million dollars was raised by donations
from cars passing by and later through an annual preview cocktail party
held at the Overly home.
That first one million dollars, raised mostly from coins, was
donated by the Overly family to the Free Care Fund at Pittsburgh
Children's Hospital, and children's medical services at Westmoreland
Regional Hospital in Greensburg.
The Story Continues at a
Crossroads...
Not long after the 1983-84 holiday season, Harry Overly suffered
a heart attack. It was a long recuperation and doctors advised Harry to
take a year off from the light display. Christmas didn't quite seem the
same at the Overly home. The following year, doctors were still
encouraging Harry to take it easy and he agreed that putting up the
display by himself would be a daunting task.
But he found...he wasn't alone.
Countless friends, neighbors,
and beneficiaries of his donations, said "Let us find a way to help."
They didn't want to
see the magical display end, but realized it had become too much for one
man and his family. That fall, school groups, business associates,
individuals, friends and neighbors volunteered to set up the lights.
 From that point on Harry realized that the display had a life of
its own with the potential to grow even larger and raise even more money
for children. The twinkling lights and the promise of donations for
children's charities had captured the hearts and imagination of hundreds
of people who were willing to commit their own time to make it survive and
grow.
In 1991 Harry
announced that the light display at his home would end and that he was in
search of a new larger home where even more people could see the lights.
In 1992, with the holiday season rapidly approaching, Idlewild Park in
Ligonier agreed to become a temporary site for the display in its
transitional effort to find a new home. The following year, in 1993, a new
home was found at the Westmoreland Fairgrounds near Greensburg. Then, in
1994, Harry established a nonprofit corporation to ensure that
his work would continue when he was no longer able. |
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