When he realized the Christmas light display he and his business builds every winter in Laramie’s Washington Park had been vandalized, Brian Welper was saddened, but not out for vengeance.
Since 2022, Tough Guys Landscaping and Lighting has partnered with local-business sponsors, the city of Laramie and nonprofit groups to glamorize the city’s park with Christmas lights.
Now in the display’s fourth year, families tumble into Washington Park, which is two city blocks by one block in area, and hurl snowballs at one another through the golden archways of light.
The park is lit seven nights a week from the weekend after Thanksgiving through the end of January, from 4-10 p.m.
Nonprofit groups sell hot chocolate from the Who-Ville Cocoa Hut and keep the proceeds. University of Wyoming basketball players are scheduled to shoot hoops with Christmas revelers this Friday as their coach Sundance Wicks tells fireside stories.
Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA” played on veterans and first responders’ night last week. On senior night Dec. 3, older visitors toured the display in golf carts while coddling cups of hot chocolate.
And on Saturday evening, someone or a group of someones vandalized five or six of the 83 light displays, Welper told Cowboy State Daily.
He was reticent about the exact nature of the vandalism, saying he didn’t want to give anyone fresh ideas.
“Some cords were cut; some damage was done to some of our larger displays,” he said.
Rather than report the incident to police, Welper placed a call for awareness on Facebook. Tough Guys Landscaping and Lighting asked people to "keep an eye out," encourage each other to be respectful and remind one another of the value the festival holds for so many in the community.
Some witnesses have said the vandals are kids.
“I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do — whether we talk to the Laramie Police Department or how far we want to go with it,” he said. “It’s not a matter of me wanting to get people in trouble. My big thing is, that we just take care of something that is, I feel, very unique and special to the citizens of Laramie.”
Because of the social media attention, said Welper, some people have helped his team pinpoint the time of the act so they can review their camera recordings from that timeframe.
‘Stunning’
Laramie Mayor Sharon Cumbie also voiced disappointment when told of the vandalism Welper described, saying the “stunning” lights are “very meaningful to the people of Laramie.”
She lives near the park.
Welper said the city helps to support the display by giving its permission and helping with the power and some insurance coverage.
In the days before the lights switch on, people clamor to know when they will, Cumbie said.
“You just can’t experience it driving past in the car,” she said. “You have to get out and walk in it.”
Why This?
Reflecting on the incident Tuesday, Welper said the vandalism appeared intentional, though not “as bad as we thought.”
The Tough Guys crew patched and repaired the display after the act, he added.
Welper started his business with his brother in 2007.
He hatched the idea for the Winter Lights Fest in 2022. The vision was a product of not having many lights to hang as a kid, having numerous lights to hang now, and being from a Wyoming community – Gillette – that hosted a winter light fest of its own during his childhood.
Welper said his wife was nostalgic about the holiday display in her childhood hometown as well: Fort Bridger.
The first year’s effort was smaller on purpose, said Welper, saying he wanted to start something sustainable. Twenty-nine sponsors contributed that year, to 29 displays.
“Now we’re up to over 75 sponsors,” Welper noted.
Local businessman Norbert Kriebel helped Welper navigate the project and address many unforeseen tasks, Welper said.
“My biggest thing is, giving kids that core memory,” said Welper. “To have something they’ll remember as they get older.”
As for the suspected vandals, Welper added, their conduct is not funny, and he hopes the community discourages it.
But at the same time, he said, “hopefully it becomes a learning experience for those kids – and they learn and grow from it.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
