{"id":431,"date":"2015-12-12T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2015-12-12T05:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/?p=431"},"modified":"2015-12-18T15:33:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T20:33:25","slug":"childhood-friends-start-tree-lighting-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/2015\/12\/12\/childhood-friends-start-tree-lighting-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Childhood friends start tree lighting tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2006, David Stefanucci built a house on Conneaut Lake where he wanted to retire and placed the first lit tree on the lake. He looked out and spotted what he called a lit \u201cCharlie Brown Tree\u201d also on display. \u201cThe whole lake was dark and it was the only lights to look at,\u201d Mr. Stefanucci said. As fate would have it, the tree belonged to his childhood friend Dane Lang. As kids, their backyards were connected in Meadville, Pa. and now Mr. Lang is a Meadville businessman and Mr. Stefanucci is a retired Meadville police chief. <\/p>\n<div class=\"video-box\">\r\n<div style=\"display: block; padding-top: 0;\">\r\n<iframe frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/players.brightcove.net\/1105443290001\/19b4b681-5e7c-4b03-b1ff-050f00d0be3e_default\/index.html?videoId=4655751589001\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;\"><\/iframe>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text videocaption\"><\/p>\n<p>They started the \u201cTrees of Light\u201d in 2012 with 17 trees. In 2013, the number of trees climbed to 35 and in 2015 the men set up 100 trees that people pay to have installed and removed around Conneaut Lake. The designed trees are supported on a 21-foot flagpole with 22 lines of LED lights. The lights start on Thanksgiving night and continue through New Year&#8217;s Day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe community talks about the trees and it puts a smile on people&#8217;s faces and draws the community together. The really unique thing about these trees being on the lake is not only the light, from the tree itself&#8230;you get the reflection that comes off the water and that\u2019s the amazing part.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dane Lang and David Stefanucci of Meadville grew up near each other, life happened and years later they ended up retiring to Conneaut Lake. Now they spend most of the year planning on lighting up the lake with colorful trees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,66],"tags":[68,67,69],"coauthors":[22],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-14-at-3.06.29-PM.png?fit=1874%2C1068&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}