Friends of Manito pulls the plug on holiday lights due to cost, volunteer shortage

SPOKANE, Wash. — Holiday lights have lit up Manito Park for the past five years, but this year the event has been canceled.

The main reasons are that it costs too much money, requires too many volunteers, and Friends of Manito does not have enough resources to fill this park with lights.

The cost to get the display up and running is $50,000 and needs countless volunteers.

“It was a wonderful event, but it’s very resource heavy and now it’s tough to keep that going with what they’ve got,” said Bob Young, president of Friends of Manito.

Originally started during COVID, Friends of Manito had the help of the parks department and volunteers who were at home rather than work to put it on. In the past five years, the parks department has stepped back from the project, and Friends of Manito says it has other priorities to spend its money on.

“You’re taking money away for other things like accessibility that we want for the park. I mean, we’re donating a lot of money to have ADA access to Duncan Gardens,” said Bob Young.

Friends of Manito says this event was rough on the park and the neighbors.

“Certainly it made getting to and from home challenging on those nights where there were the lights, because these are narrow streets and people park on them. Plus, you know, traffic trying to go multiple directions,” said Josie Sackmann.

When neighbors were spoken to, they all said that traffic was a small price to pay for the holiday cheer.

“I’m really disappointed. I think it’s a really cool event, and I love that it’s free to the community,” said Josie Sackmann. “It’s just lovely to walk through and have hot cocoa and, you know, take your kids and experience that magic.”

Friends of Manito says it hopes to bring some type of holiday lights to Manito Park next year.

There are still plenty of light shows around town for the holidays. The “Making Spirits Bright” at Cowley Park, put on by KXLY’s Extreme Team, will go up after Thanksgiving.