TAKE FIVE!

November 24, 2020

Samantha Mango:
Hi, I’m Samantha Mango. Welcome to Sullivan 180 Presents Take Five!. Our guest today is Lauren Jahoda, Business Development and Events Manager with Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Welcome Lauren. Thanks for being here.

Lauren Jahoda:
Thanks so much for having me. Putting up lots of lights.

Samantha Mango:
I love to hear that. Can you please introduce yourself your title and tell us a little bit about your organization?

Lauren Jahoda:
I’m Lauren Jahoda. My title is Business Development and Events Manager at Bethel woods. That includes managing all of our annual festivals, our harvest festival, the beer festival, wine festival, holiday market, as well as some other miscellaneous events. And then the other portion of my job is business development. Bringing on large revenue driving projects that have a long term benefit to Bethel Woods, like Peace, Love and Lights, and some other potential festivals down the road, mountain jams in that category, all sorts of fun projects. It’s always something new and different. And that’s why I love it.

Samantha Mango:
You mentioned Peace, Love and Lights. Can you tell us what that is?

Lauren Jahoda:
This is our first year of doing it. It’s very exciting for us and I think also for the area. It’s a one mile drive through a holiday light show. So for a mile long stretch of our grounds, you’ll go through and see all different holiday light displays, some are animated. We also have some themed areas. One of them includes a snowflake alley. We have a large, 120 foot tunnel. That’s color changing. We have an enchanted forest, we have a Woodstock themed area. It’s going to have peace signs and a VW bus and some other cool elements. And then we have some classic items like Santa’s Workshop, and some traditional Christmas stuff that everyone loves to see. But other than that, the main details are to know that it runs every single night from Monday, November 23rd through Sunday, January 3rd. So there’s plenty of opportunity to come in, come more than once. It’s a big undertaking for us and we’re really excited and I think that everyone’s going to be really happy about it. There’s a lot to see. So I definitely recommend it.

Samantha Mango:
I think it’s just what we need this year, too. Absolutely. So Sullivan 180 is collaborating with Bethel Woods to sponsor the six Wednesdays throughout Peace, Love and Lights. And Sullivan 180 Walkthrough Wednesdays. Can you tell us some more on this?

Lauren Jahoda:
When we were planning Peace, Love and Lights, we were trying to think of ways to make the programming or the offering diverse. One of those ideas was instead of driving through it, do we give people the opportunity to actually walk through the show? So that’s where this came about. So every Wednesday from 4:30 to 6 o’clock, so normally the light, the drive-through starts at five on Wednesdays. It’s going to start at six to accommodate this walking program. But from 4:30 to 6 o’clock you can walk that mile and see all the displays up close and personal. It probably seems early, but believe it or not, it’s that time of year where it’s actually pretty dark at four 3, 5 o’clock so, it’s obviously a mask worn at all times walkthrough because of COVID. But other than that, it’s $5 to do it unless you bring an unwrapped toy for Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless. That will get you in for free. The only thing to note about that is that, if capacity is an issue on any given date, that priority will have to be given to people who are ticketed. So you can even buy a $5 ticket and also donate a toy. But we want to make sure there’s opportunity for everyone to participate. And also to give something back to the Federation. Some important things to note is that we’re going to be parking people in our normal lot at the museum. For anyone who’s been there, it’s right across the street from the museum. And there’s going to be a bus shuttle provided from that location to the entrance of the drive-through. People prefer to walk if they can, but the shuttle’s available. So that way, when you finish the walkthrough, you are at the location of your car to make things as easy as possible. We are so excited to partner with Sullivan 180, I think it’s perfect for the County.

Samantha Mango:
We’re adding a challenge component in there aren’t we?

Lauren Jahoda:
Right. Maybe you can speak to that a little bit better.

Samantha Mango:
I sure can. So the walkthrough is a mile long and Sullivan 180 is challenging our community members to walk 500 miles. So that would mean 500 walkers. And if we reach that goal of 500 Sullivan 180 and Bethel Woods will partner together to donate $500 to the Federation for the Homeless, along with the toy drive donations. And we’ve also gotten a matching donation from the Liberty New York Rotary Club of $500. So a total of a thousand dollars will be donated to Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless if we reach the goal of 500 miles. I think we can do it. Is there anything else you’d like to share about Bethel Woods or Peace, Love and Lights?

Lauren Jahoda:
We have a couple of other things going on that are part of the Peace, Love, and Lights experience. One is what we’re calling our Holiday Hub, which is after you’ve done the light show, you’ve driven it. As soon as you leave, you can park in our main lots, get out of the car and walk into an area where you can buy food, full meals. We’re calling it comfort food. There’s a huge menu. You can sit down and have dinner, you can also get a smores for the kids where you go up to our fireplace, you can roast smores and there’s going to be holiday cocktails, all kinds of offerings, definitely enough for any family to have. We also have a 26 foot Christmas tree in that area. That’s going to be all lit up. And then the only other thing I would say is our Dinners with Santa, which is a separate ticketed event. But Santa will be present at all of them and will be socially distant. So Santa would just be walking around, going to the tables, talking to children. You can deliver your letters with Santa there. It will be a nice offering during a very crazy time.

Samantha Mango:
Where can people go for more information or to purchase tickets?

Lauren Jahoda:
You can go to BethelWoodsCenter.org.

Samantha Mango:
Thanks so much for joining us today, Laura, and I really appreciate the time and I’m so looking forward to Peace, Love and Lights and meeting that 500 mile challenge.

Lauren Jahoda:
Yes, me too. And I hope to see everyone, everyone there.