“Light the Way This Holiday Season”
That’s the message of the Bedford Minuteman Company Memorial Scholarship Trust, the charity that prepares and sells the small illuminated bags that have been decorating local walkways on Christmas Eve for more than two decades.
They are called luminarias, or luminaries, named after a traditional Mexican Christmas lantern. They generate a uniquely Bedford brand of breathtaking light at the darkest time of the year.
And Paul Ciaccia, who has served as president of the trust for many years, hopes that luminaria sales will set a record in 2020.
What does that represent? Let’s take a look at some numbers.
The Minutemen in recent years have sold as many as 375 luminaries kits in a season, Ciaccia said. There are 12 small candles and 12 bags in each kit; when assembled and the candles are lit, the units are recommended to be spaced 10 feet apart.
So, let‘s see… that’s 12 luminaries per kit, times 375 kits, making 4,500 illuminated bags, each spaced 10 feet apart, for a total of 45,000 feet, or more than eight and a half miles – equal to a steady string of luminaries from Bedford Center north on Route 4 to Chelmsford Center (or Arlington Heights if you prefer eastbound).
Profits from luminaria sales, originally the source of cash awards to local students for college or to start a business, now directly benefit the Bedford Public Schools, Ciaccia noted. Since 1996, the trust has raised $76,550, including $9,500 donated to the schools over the past three years. The trust, a spinoff of the Bedford Minuteman Company colonial reenactors, has one objective, he said: “to sell luminaries and do something with the money. All the money goes to the schools.”
Specifically, Ciaccia said, each year the Minutemen present a grant to be used “to support student engagement with and understanding of American history, American studies and American literature.” There’s a caveat: the money can’t be used to offset budget allocations.
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Generally, the schools have purchased books that teachers use as resources for the appropriate subjects, he said. Andrea Salipante, program chair for English language arts in kindergarten through fifth grade, is the trust’s point person.
“This has been a horrible year for many people,” Ciaccia remarked. “So this is a time to try and celebrate, to bring some light to the town. The money is going back to the kids. I’m not disappointed with the number of sales, but I’d like to do more.” He added that the luminaries will enhance the Rotary Club of Bedford’s months-long campaign called “Light-Up Bedford – a Decoration Celebration,” and will be designated on the club’s map of lighted residences.
The kits are available only at Chip-In Farm on Hartwell Road, which turns all of the proceeds over to the trust.
Ciaccia thinks it was John Filios, whose military experience and regal bearing personified the Bedford Minutemen for years, who originated the luminaries sale fundraiser some 25 years ago. Members like Dan Puffer, Ed Magiera, and Dave Reader worked with Filios to get the project rolling.
A kit, Ciaccia said, consists of 10 pounds of sand in a large plastic bag, 12 votive candles and 12 number-six white paper bags. Hundreds of cumulative hours of labor go into preparing the luminaries, he added, beginning when he orders everything in the spring for delivery in September.
In the fall a six-person team of Minutemen convenes at one of the buildings at the Carlisle Road town compost center to fill each plastic bag with 10 pounds of sand. “We were there on a cold Saturday morning in October. It took us maybe an hour and a half to put the bags together.”
The temperature dipped to 19 degrees on Halloween when Chuck Hacala, Roy Kring, Peter Secor, and Jim Ringwood (l-r) gathered in the DPW barn at the Compost Center on Carlisle Road to load 150 bags of sand for delivery to Suzanne Koller.
Ciaccia thanked Adrienne St. John, town engineer, and Tim French, both of the Department of Public Works, for making those arrangements, including the sand provided by the town at no charge.
“My wife and I buy the white bags and count them out into 12s and take a candle box of 12 and an instruction guide and tie each packet with a ribbon,” he continued.
How to Set Up a Luminaria?
Fold the top back to make a cuff to stiffen the bag, add an inch or so of sand, and center the candle in the sand. “We light the candles usually around 3 o’clock and they burn all night,” Ciaccia said.
Where are Luminaria Regularly Displayed?
The most visible Christmas Eve luminaria are in the Historic District, lining both sides of The Great Road between Willson Park and Bacon/Hillside Roads, as well as on the pathways of the Town Common. Long-time Minuteman Chuck Hacala coordinates that operation, interacting with the businesses along the way. Meanwhile, Tim Brown and former Minuteman Captain Peter Secor line luminaries around Brown’s next-door neighbor, Willson Park.
Luminaries are prominent at residences in many parts of town. “My neighborhood is 100 percent, and it’s spectacular on Christmas Eve,” Ciaccia said. He added that realtor Suzanne Koller annually acquires about 150 kits and distributes them as gifts to clients and other newcomers.
Questions may be addressed to Ciaccia at [email protected].
Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
Click this link to learn more about The Bedford Citizen’s first community reporter.
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