Glowing With Thanks

WAITSBURG - The welcome many newcomers have received from Waitsburg residents over the years has inspired acts of gratitude in the past.

Larry and Deanne Johnson's now-famous and well-attended summer gumbo party at their home on Fifth Street is a case in point.

But this week was the first time newcomers ever lit up the entire downtown as a thank you for the way Waitsburgers brought them into their midst.

Allison Bond and Bruce Donohue, who bought the former Lybacker home on Fourth Street almost a year ago, reached back to the ancient Hispanic tradition of Luminaria as a gesture of reciprocal kindness to the entire community.

ITS MEANING

Luminaria has several meanings. It's the small paper lantern with a candle set in sand like the ones lining the streets of Waitsburg Tuesday night. Among Catholics, the lighting and setting of luminaria also is traditionally associated with Christmas Eve, representing the lights on the path leading to the barn where Jesus was born.

Long popular with Hispanic Americans and in places such as Santa Fe and Albuquerque (known for their impressive Christmas Eve luminaria displays), the lighting tradition is gaining ground as a secular yet equally heart-warming or meaningful ceremonial tradition in other parts of the country. Bond and Donohue simply wanted to reflect the glow they feel from the Waitsburg community's embrace.

"We wanted to do something to say thank you to all those people who have been so welcoming to us," said Bond, who is by no means a stranger to the Walla Walla area, but nonetheless a newcomer to Waitsburg.

Putting together the display and night at the Town Hall was no small feat. The couple filled 1,000 bags with sand, then placed them on both sides of Main Street starting at the Bruce Mansion, wrapping back around Coppei and Preston Avenue to connect back to downtown is a giant "P."

They hosted a cookies and hot cocoa welcome at Town Hall, put ads in the newspaper and obtained approval from the Sheriff's Office and the Fire District to hold the enlightening evening. As word of the event spread in the past weeks, others offered their help, underscoring yet again what kind of town Waitsburg is. Members of the Commercial Club made several offers of assistance, which the couple gratefully declined until the club finally decided to help offset the cost of the ad. The Town Hall board offered its space for the evening gathering after it felt it was appropriate to join in the giant thank you as a way to show gratitude for the community's support of all the renovations to the historic building. Twenty three high school students in Rosanne Groom's class offered their help with the project for community service credit.

Donohue said the couple was reluctant to accept too much help because it was an experiment they didn't want to be too troublesome for anyone else. The sense of community Donohue has felt since the couple starting coming to Waitsburg after they bought property on Biscuit Ridge seven years ago, is something new to him.

As an Air Force "brat," the 50-year-old software architect who was born in Tripoli, Libya, moved 16 times before he graduated from high school, then moved many more times during his professional life.

Not so for Bond, who was born and raised in Walla Walla, and is deeply rooted in the greater area, though she only recently began spending time here again after many years in Seattle. She now volunteers her time building web pages for an organization that promotes the rescue and survival of American Indian dog breeds. But she is volunteering locally as well.

Each time Bond and Donohue spent time camping at their Biscuit Ridge land, they would find themselves wondering down to Waitsburg, making more and more friends over time. Then, in December last year, they bought the Lybacker home and moved into town.

"It's such a wonderful place here," Donohue said.