Just by a stroke of good fortune, and with the kind corporate citizenry of the Anguilla Electricity Company, there will be Christmas lighting in The Valley.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Gonzalo, thieves made off with chunks of the copper wire from the road-side tree-tops of the mahogany and tamarind trees, in The Valley, over which the wire was extended, making it impossible for the multi-coloured lighting to be mounted.
The Lions Community, discouraged by the theft act, considered cancelling the Christmas lighting this year, but ANGLEC and other sponsors came to the rescue. ANGLEC provided a gift of two rolls of aluminium-coated wire, valued in the range of EC$5,000 to EC$8,000, for the upcoming lighting in December
Derrick Richardson, a representative of the Lions Community which comprises mainly persons from The Valley and North Side, met with ANGLEC’s CEO, Mr David Gumbs, and media personnel on Monday evening and reported the dilemma.
“We were preparing for this year’s Christmas lighting, but approximately a week after the hurricane, we noticed that the wire from the roundabout towards the Trough was stolen,” Richardson complained. “We initially cancelled the event because of the cost associated with replacing the wire. We made it public that the wire was stolen and we got a lot of feedback that we should not cancel the event. Now, here is ANGLEC stepping up to assist us, and saying it understands the importance of the Christmas Tree lighting to Anguilla – so the company decided to contribute the replacement of the wire so that we can continue with our plans.”
ANGLEC’S CEO, Mr Gumbs, explained that the donated wire was usually used for household connections. “In this case, it serves real well for the Christmas lighting because the initial problem the organisers had was that the copper was stolen for the little copper market in Anguilla, but this wire is aluminium-based so this will hopefully deter persons from stealing the wire in the future.”
Mr Richardson, accompanied by his colleague, Lunsford Richardson, commented: “We are grateful to have ANGLEC contribute this wire to us. We intend to wire the balance of the trees; and we hope next year to replace all of the other wire with this aluminium-based wire.”
The Christmas lighting will cover the period December 17 to January 4 during which there will be various crowd-attracting events.
The rolls of wire were handed over to Derrick Richardson by Mr Elvin Richardson, ANGLEC’S Public Relations Officer.
In addition to ANGLEC, there are a number of other major sponsors on board. They include DIGICEL, LIME and Social Security.
