The Dancing Lights Team

The Golden Goose Club is a non profit organization that is funded by women in Mahaska county, who make tax deductible donations into our 501(c)(3). Those funds then proceed to fund community improvement projects. Each membership results in something substantial. It demonstrates what can come out of a group of people joining together instead of one person trying to accomplish something all by themself.

Visit us at: https://thegoldengooseclub.com/

During an expectedly warm Florida Christmas season, Vicky watched a light show on a local home in the area. She immediately fell in love with the idea and the gears started to turn. She envisioned a wonderful display in the city center, complimenting the existing painted lights, and the gorgeous 21' Twinkly tree that she and the geese contributed previously, for all who wished to enjoy!

Jane is the embodiment of the spirit of Christmas. Between the many Christmas related events that she and the crew at Mahaska drug are responsible for, she still made it a priority to support the project in any way needed to ensure our success!

After watching a simple YouTube video post by a man named Tom BetGeorge with the song Carol of the Bells by Trans Siberian Orchestra back in 2010, Jeremiah knew that one day he wanted to build a lighting display himself. Starting in 2017, that is exactly what he did. Starting with just a few hundred lights, over the course of the next 5 years expanded by 10's thousands of pixel lights, 18 ft' tall fire torches, moving head stage lights, fog machines, CO2 cannons, Lazer projectors, inflatable characters, and last but not least even a few plain' ol' Christmas lights from Wal-Mart. Thousands of people over the years made it a tradition to come by his home in the middle of nowhere to see what sort of holiday light display he had created for the year. When Vicky got his number via a mutual friend of his mother's, all it took was a few minutes conversation and Vicky's vision was on its way to becoming reality.

Upon meeting Jeremiah, Brandon immediately was interested in learning any and all that he could. It wasn't long before he was coming up with far better ideas than the light guy himself (in case you are wondering, it's the light guy who is writing this too ;) ) Throughout the 2023 season Brandon has taken a lead role in managing, repairing, and monitoring the display at Mahaska Drug and the Square. Can't wait to see what ideas he comes up with next year!

Whether it be making an impromptu trip to Menards to pick up more spools of wire than half the county probably buys in a lifetime, knowing the "right guy" that has the key needed for an inconspicuous locked door, coming to the rescue with an emergency drop cord far past quitting time, or denoting light guy "The Wizard" Tuckers contributions were always the exact right thing at the exact right time.

Anniston
Brandon
Jason
Landen
Shelby
Spencer
Teal
Tucker
Zach B.

If not for the incredible work of these individuals, the light show simply would not have happened. Over the course of multiple weeks, they painstakingly took 700 individual strands of 50 lights per strand and pushed them into the ribbons, by hand, that outline each of the 8 grass areas of the square. Not only is the scale of such an endeavor daunting, but it often times becomes painful even when doing a few; let alone 35,000 in total.

Many of these incredible people also helped Jeremiah at the square multiple days stake down the lights, and meticulously zip tie the wires, lights and stakes into place.

Every single one of them were absolutely the best and they deserve so many thanks and appreciation. Thank you!

Although LaVonne wasn't planned to be a team member, she was one of the most incredible surprises early on. As frequent as we would like or as infrequent as we were available, LaVonne cooked some of the best meals that I've had in a very long time (that's not to mention making more desserts than any human deserves!). She was so giving and gracious with her time that she even took the time one day to do a one-on-one cake decorating lesson with the light guy! Thank you LaVonne, you're appreciated more than you know!