Proceeds from light show used to buy presents for hospitalized children

Gaffney resident Anthony Childers is shown on Christmas Eve visiting a child at the Children's Hospital in Greenville. Childers raised $1,200 in donations from a holiday light show to throw a party for children spending the Christmas holidays in the hospital. A Christmas light show provided Gaffney resident Anthony Childers with a way to help brighten the lives of children spending the holidays in the hospital.

His father, Marcus, allowed his house in Grassy Pond to be converted into a musical light show in November that featured 35,000 lights controlled by a computer. Donations were collected nightly from Nov. 28 through Dec. 31.

Childers used the $1,200 in donations to purchase Christmas presents and throw a pizza party at the Children's Hospital in Greenville. He spent half the day on Christmas Eve with his family sharing pizza and distributing gifts.

Childers and his wife, Sarah, were joined at the Children's Hospital by his father, Marcus, aunt and uncle Richard and Gwen Sarratt, and daughter, Danielle Sarratt.

Pizza, drinks, cookies and candy were served during the event and gifts were presented to 65 children at the Children's Hospital.

In addition, the Childers family purchased the "Guitar Hero" video game and several other small games for a play room in the Children's Hospital.

"I wanted to give a special thanks to all those who contributed to the light show. Hospital officials told me no one had ever done a pizza party before," Childers said. "The Christmas party was a huge success with nurses, doctors, parents and siblings being able to share in the fun. The looks on the children's faces said more than I can say. It was a great way to spend Christmas this year."

Childers said it was a perfect Christmas gift to help children spending their holidays dealing with cancer treatments, AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses.

The experience hit close to home for Childers. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer Dec. 15, 2005.

"I missed out on Christmas in 2005 while I was going through cancer treatments," said Childers, whose cancer is now in remission. "I wanted to give back to help someone else."

Childers began the holiday light show in 2007 simply as a hobby to channel his natural interest in electronics. The owner of ACE Electronics in Gaffney regularly chats on the Internet with a small community of people who share his interest in putting together light displays.

"I have worked in electronics for the past 15 years. I have always enjoyed tinkering with stuff," Childers said. "I started putting together this year's holiday light show in November. The big display was a mega-Christmas tree with 8,800 lights. It required 80 sets of lights that flash in different colors and patterns."

This year's show had lights dancing to Christmas music on various displays personally programmed by Childers. He spends 10 months each year planning the light show.

He invested 600 hours of time into programming the music for his most recent light display. Each musical light show lasted 15 minutes and ran from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m. nightly during the 2008 holiday season.

"It takes about 20 hours of programming for every 30 seconds of music in the lights show," he said. "Last year I had the light show in Blacksburg. I moved it over to my father's house in Gaffney this year because of my grandmother's health issues."

Childers has bigger plans for his 2009 holiday light show. He hopes to move the event to a more accessible location where it can be seen by more people.

"We are looking for a corporate or commercial sponsor with a public venue to allow us to put on a display this year with a much larger show," Childers said. "We would love to establish a yearly display and location in Gaffney for tourism and revenue from traffic generated by the interest."

Interested businesses can contact Childers at ACE Electronics at (864) 489-6918.

While he waits for the phone to ring, Childers said he will continue to spend his free time tinkering with his light displays and finding new ways to brighten the lives of children next holiday season.