Irish Cultural Center’s lantern walk offers winter wonderland

Feb. 10, 2021 | Ryan Feyre
rfeyre@thewestfieldnewsgroup.com

The Irish Cultural Center in West Springfield was decorated with 120 lanterns for the public to check out over one January weekend.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

WEST SPRINGFIELD – With this winter being tougher than most, a lantern trail walk at the Irish Cultural Center (ICC) became a light in the darkness.

On the weekend of Jan. 30, the public was invited to walk around the all-access trail behind the ICC, which was decorated with ice lanterns for an incandescent winter experience.

William Garvey, who decorated the trail with these lanterns, told Reminder Publishing that the idea was inspired by his own family hobby.

“I have a sister who lives up in Maine, and that’s how I knew about ice lanterns,” said Garvey. “I’ll make them here or there in the yard, but I’ve never done them to this scale.”

Garvey, who is also a part of the West Springfield School Committee, works quite a bit on improving the cross country trail at the West Springfield High School, which connects to the trail behind the ICC. It is through these days where Garvey developed the idea for the lantern trail walk.

“Working out there has given me the idea of, wouldn’t it be a cool thing to get folks out safely for an evening,” said Garvey. “Would’ve been a little better if it wasn’t 10 degrees, but we had a lot of brave souls out there.”

The lanterns stretched a half mile loop around the ¾ mile -long trail behind the ICC, according to Garvey. The event was a last-minute idea that was presented to Mayor William Reichelt and the Park and Recreation department four or five days before the public experienced the lanterns.

“It’s a hard thing to advertise, because you need the right weather,” said Garvey. “It started kind of slow; an email here and there, and then the night before, the Park & Rec. put it on their Facebook.”

By the end of that weekend, Garvey had placed 120 different lanterns out on the trail. Some were large, while others were little accent pieces. According to Garvey, the process only took a few days because of favorable weather. All of the lanterns were either made in his backyard or cellar.

“This time of year, people get closed in and are looking for things to do,” said Garvey. “It’s great to have a family thing to do, especially this year. It really felt COVID safe.”

Around 50 people came through on the first night of the lantern walk, while 200 people came through on the last night. According to Garvey, there will be plans for future lantern walks, but as of right now, there are no set dates. The weather will be the biggest key factor, as the lanterns do not work well with snow.

“It was peace and quiet,” said Garvey. “You couldn’t think of a better winter activity.”

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