Wonderful Time At The Roosevelt Island Holiday/Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony - Local Kids Perform, Colorful Lights And Santa Claus Comes To Town

The Roosevelt Island Holiday/Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony took place Friday evening, December 2, next to Blackwell House.

The weather was perfect, not too cold, but chilly enough to feel winter was coming, and no rain. The crowd



was entertained by young Roosevelt Island performers from the Main Street Theater & Dance Alliance,



PS/IS 217 Beacon Program After School kids



and the 116th Street Band



as everyone waited



for the arrival of Santa Claus and the lighting



of the Roosevelt Island Holiday/Christmas Tree

in front of Blackwell House

on Main Street.

Santa also greeted happy Roosevelt Island kids.

 Image From Jax Schott

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp's (RIOC) Erica Spencer-El and Jessica Murray hosted the program and introduced RIOC President Susan Rosenthal, RIOC Director Fay Christian and Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Jeff Escobar who all welcomed the residents wishing the crowd a happy holiday season.



Also, RIOC Public Safety Department Director Jack McManus and Deputy Director Kevin Brown wished everyone a happy Holiday Season and Director McManus added a request for residents to say thank you to the Public Safety officers for their service to our community.



Good times. Nice job by RIOC.

UPDATE 12/5 - Frank Farance and other members of the Roosevelt Island Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) assisted the Public Safety Department with crowd control at the Tree Lighting ceremony. Mr. Farance shares these photos and reports:

A great event,

thanks to Santa, RIOC, RI Youth Program, Main Street Theatre, Girl Scouts, RIRA, Public Safety and

 RI CERT.

Aside from the younger kids having fun,

the teenagers

were having a really good time, too,

with the band.