By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES – This weekend, the Four Flags Garden Club will be celebrating the 16th annual Hometown Christmas with the lighting of the Amtrack Depot.
Families are invited and encouraged to come out and enjoy the Christmas event, which takes place this Saturday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. There will be entertainment by the Judge Revue, who will be performing Christmas music and classical. Refreshments such as homemade cookies, candy and cider will be served and Santa Claus will make an appearance. Also, community royalty, including Miss Niles/Brandywine, will be in attendance as well as First Ward City Council member Georgia Boggs, who will be representing Mayor Mike McCauslin's office.
On Monday afternoon, garden club members were busy decorating the Depot for the upcoming event, which is free and open to the public. Members decorated the inside of the station and went to work on a 12-foot Blue Spruce Christmas tree, donated by Durm Farms.
"Members of the club decorate everything inside and out. And everything we decorate is 'live.' Being a garden club, nothing is artificial," Karen Persa, garden club member said.
There will be a special drawing for two round trip Amtrak tickets from Niles to Chicago. Visitors to the event will be given a numbered ticket stub and the name of the lucky winners will be called at 6:15 p.m. You must be present to win.
Another added attraction will be the mural of the Niles Depot circa 1893, painted by local artist and garden club member Janet Seaman.
"This is a great event holiday for everyone, especially children," Persa said.
Hometown Christmas started in 1991, after the film Only the Lonely staring John Candy was taped. The last scene of the movie was filmed at the Depot and to make a Christmas scene, the studio placed lights on the roof of the train station. When the movie finished filming, the studio left the lights. Four Flags Garden Club members then organized and created Hometown Christmas, which is always held on the first Saturday of December.
Over the years, Amtrak and the City of Niles have pitched in to replace the light bulbs, check the wiring and have helped with any other technical issue that may have come up.
By 1999, it was determined that, due to weather and time, a major renovation of the lights needed to be done. Through donations from people and some philanthropic donors in the community, garden club officers and members were able to raise enough money to replace the wiring and lights.
The Four Flags Garden Club was formed 41 years ago and currently has 25 members, including Joanne Fintze, one of the original members. She was the first club president and has held the position three times.
Hometown Christmas board members include Co-Chairpersons Suzanne Beauchamp and Carol Shearer, President Elaine Metzger and Vice President Dawn Matthews.
Club members also maintain the five gardens at the Depot and meet incoming trains on the Saturday morning of the Apple Festival to distribute apples, cookies and cider to arriving and departing passengers. In conjunction with the Niles Garden Club, Four Flags Garden Club members helped design, plant and maintain the Yellow Ribbon Garden at the Veterans Memorial site at Riverfront Park.
For more information on the Four Flags Garden Club, residents may attend the monthly meetings, the third Tuesday of the month at the lower level of the Chamber of Commerce building.