Orangeville Hydro hosted its annual Christmas Cheer week December 7 – 11, raising funds for three local charities, The Salvation Army, Family Transition Place and the Orangeville Food Bank

“We are very pleased to announce that this year’s Christmas Cheer week was very successful, thanks to our staff and companies that donated prizes for our Silent Auction and Holiday Raffle,” said Hydro’s Pietra Velinor. “We managed to raise over $1700 for Family Transition Place and the Salvation Army. We donated two bins of food to the Orangeville Food Bank and hats, gloves and scarves to the Salvation Army.”

In addition to this event, Orangeville Hydro ran its annual LED Light Exchange and Food Drive, collecting seven bins of food for the Orangeville Food Bank (including the two bins from Christmas Cheer week and two from Theatre Orangeville; 18 large garbage bags of Christmas lights for recycling. In all, 426 LED light strings were given away and 198 coupons for customers to purchase LED lights at a discounted price.

To quantify the saving, Orangeville Hydro handed out 426 boxes of 70 LED light strings.

This would account for a savings of approximately $4,473 for this holiday season alone. If you take into consideration the additional 198 coupons handed out with a 50% take-up rate, it would be a combined savings of approximately $5,512.50 if the lights had been used for six hours a day over the month of December.

As a bonus, Orangeville Hydro also raffled off a Christmas Conservation Gift Basket. Congratulations to this year’s winner, Hilda Welsh of Orangeville.