Frantz family Christmas Lights for a Cause

Whether it’s just a string of lights brightening up a porch or a multicolored wonderland, nothing quite says Christmas like a beautiful display of Christmas lights. If you enjoy driving around and seeing the displays, it’s worth making a stop at 210 1st Street NW in Clarion. There, if you tune to 88.7 FM on your radio, you’ll be able to watch and listen to the Frantz family Christmas Lights for a Cause show.

This is the seventh year Tom Frantz and family have put together a Christmas lights show. Frantz is a veteran who served in Iraq during Christmas in both 2007 and 2008. When he was home in 2009 and struggling with the transition, he and his family decided to go out and look at Christmas lights. After seeing a large light show in Plymouth, Minnesota, Frantz turned to his wife and said, “You know what, I’m going to do that.”

Frantz first started accepting donations when people would leave money in his mailbox with notes to “go toward his electric bill.” Since then, he’s taken donations for Wright County Hospice and the Joy Grandgeorge family in a locked box at the end of his driveway. This year, the beneficiary is the family of Dakota, a fifth grader at Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Elementary who has undergone treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Dakota was chosen because he was nominated by fans of the light show on Facebook. All funds donated go toward the cause, and all expenses for equipment and electricity come out of Frantz’s pocket.

For the full story, see the December 21 edition of the Monitor.