Last year, “Christmas in the Park” raised nearly $100,000, according to Kylene Askvig, who chairs the committee for the event.

“Our focus for Sertoma is speech and hearing. All the money that we raise gets returned back to the community in some form as far as donations to multiple different clubs and organizations with speech and hearing and kids as our focus,” Askvig said.

Askvig said there are more than 70 displays that have been erected this year, including six new ones, as there continues to be interest from businesses and organizations to get involved.

“Even after all this time it continues to grow. I already have a couple that want to join for next year, so it continues to thrive even though it’s a long standing tradition in Minot,” Askvig said.

Christmas and religious imagery make up a number of the displays in the Sertoma Club’s “Christmas in the Park” at Oak Park on Tuesday evening.

Askvig said some businesses provide their own displays, but a majority of the displays are made by Sertoma. The displays are designed by Sertoma, with the welding completed by private welders or shop class students from schools like South Prairie and the Burdick Job Corp. The displays are stored away after the Christmas season until the second week of October when the work begins preparing and placing them through the week of Thanksgiving.

“We have a group of about four or five guys who have it down to a science. We have a site list and they have it all figured out where things are supposed to go,” Askvig said. “It takes a lot of volunteer hours.”

The lights will be shining in Oak Park between 6-10 p.m. every evening through New Year’s Eve for those looking to take their annual cruise or newcomers seeking to experience it for the first time.

“My girls are in their twenties now, and they loved it. We would make some hot chocolate, and of course, they’d get to unbuckle their seat belts. When they were young they think that’s a big deal. It was always a wonderful memory for them,” Askvig said.

A patriotic display extends gratitude to veterans, law enforcement, active military and first responders as a part of Sertoma’s “Christmas in the Park” at Oak Park in Minot on Tuesday evening.