By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
HIGHLANDS – When Diane McIlwaine moved from Shrewsbury to Highlands in 2007, she marveled at the beautiful “tree” in the south tower of the historic Twin Lights that Christmas. “I thought it was just the coolest thing,” she said.
Then in 2008, it wasn’t there.
She was so dismayed by the tree’s absence that she went to the lighthouse and asked staff there what happened to it. “I was like, ‘Hey, how come you guys don’t have a tree?’ ” she said.
McIlwaine was told the people who previously installed the tree each year could no longer do it. Without hesitation, she asked if she and her brother could take over. “I said, ‘We would like to do it if you’d let us,’ ” she said, and they agreed.
That’s how McIlwaine, her husband Rich, brother Bob Gunter and a few other volunteers started adorning the south tower lantern room with a Christmas tree that isn’t really a tree. “It’s a light installation, basically,” explained McIlwaine, consisting of 14 strands of C-9 colored lights (the ones with the big bulbs) strung from a two-by-four and draped into a tree shape, each string secured to the grated floor.
“I knew that we could do the lights. I knew we could figure something out,” she said. “You can’t have a real tree up there. It’s just impossible logistically to do that.”
“There’s no way you could put a tree up there, fake or real.”
So Gunter figured out the basics and over the years they have tweaked the process. They started with eight strands and realized that wasn’t enough for a full-looking tree. They also realized they needed to alternate the bulb pattern on each strand otherwise the finished tree would appear striped.
“It’s actually kind of bizarre how we do it. It’s very, very high up,” she added. Originally Gunter climbed the ladder to attach the lights but now that job falls to Bob Volsario, a volunteer from Staten Island. Gunter still tests the lights every year before the others haul them up the many stairs to begin the installation.
McIlwaine met Volsario through her job. Pre-COVID-19 she worked for the Highlands Business Partnership planning events like Oktoberfest and the St. Patrick’s Day parade. She is currently laid off because of the pandemic. Volsario is a member of the Richmond County Pipes and Drums and marched in the parade. They became friends on Facebook and, after commenting on one of her personal posts about the tree, Volsario asked if he could help. Now he and his wife Betty are part of the team that brings a little Christmas joy to the Shore.
According to Maggie Mitchell, superintendent of the Twin Lights Historic Site through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, “It is unclear when the holiday lights were first placed in the south tower.” She said the park staff hangs wreaths and garland on the lighthouse exterior, leaving the tree to McIlwaine’s group. And until last year the lighting of the tree was uneventful.
“We would always get the lights ready the Saturday before Thanksgiving,” said McIlwaine, “and then they would go on Black Friday.” The lights are on a timer, coming on at 3:30 p.m. and shutting off at 7:30 a.m.
But in 2019, Twin Lights held its first Winterfest, said Mitchell, an event which included “holiday crafts for children, tours by the historian, and a countdown to a tree lighting in the south tower.”
“That was really exciting for us,” said McIlwaine.
This year, because of COVID-19, the event was canceled. Mitchell said the Twin Lights State Historic Site hopes to hold the event again.
Last year’s public lighting wasn’t the only change to the tree installation process. Prior to 2019, the only power source was “all the way on the first floor,” McIlwaine said. “We would have to string extension cords all the way down the banister of the lighthouse.” But last year the state installed an electrical outlet at the top of the tower, ultimately making hooking up the lights easier. “There’s definitely a system that we have and we definitely have it down to a science,” McIlwaine said about the installation. “Last year was a little crazy because of the new outlet so it took a little bit longer. We weren’t sure exactly about how much power the outlet could take… but it worked out perfectly.”
And this year it was even easier. It usually takes two to three hours to hang the lights and can get quote hot in the lantern room especially if it’s a sunny day. “It’s almost like you’re under a magnifying glass,” she said. “The sun’s beating down on you, you’re taking your jacket off. We take cold water up there because it gets kind of warm.”
The team takes the lights down in late winter as the weather starts to warm up a little and the Twin Lights staff stores them until the following November. But they didn’t get to do that before the shutdown in March, so the lights remained up all year. “So this year… all we had to do was switch out the dead bulbs. It was the easiest year of all,” McIlwaine said with a laugh.
This is also the year McIlwaine and the other volunteers – affectionately nicknamed the “Treeple” (a portmanteau of “tree” and “people”) by Volsario – discovered how much the lights mean to the residents of the Jersey Shore. Volsario posted a picture of the lighted tree on the HIGHLANDS New Jersey Facebook page Nov. 30. It received over 1,000 reactions and 446 comments, all of them positive.
McIlwaine, who admits Christmas is a “big deal” to her – she and her husband were married Dec. 29, 2017 in New York City by the Bryant Park Christmas tree – said she was happy to see the outpouring of love for the Twin Lights tree.“This is really near and dear to us, so it’s nice to have it out there and people will come and see it and enjoy it,” McIlwaine said. “It’s something that people need now, more than any other year.”
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 10-16, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
