KELOWNA, B.C. – For five years, Damjan Madjar has been inspiring his neighbourhood around Gramiak Road to brighten the Christmas season for the entire community.
Sixty homes set up hundreds of displays and thousands of lights.
Madjar began Candy Cane Lane with the goal of becoming the best decorated street in the city at Christmas.
“When I was a kid, my favourite thing around Christmas time was seeing lights and this is the adult version of Lite-Brite!”
But he quickly realized they could also more than just a Christmas light spectacle.
Donations are collected at Candy Cane Lane through the month of December for the Kelowna Women’s Shelter, Freedom’s Door residential treatment program, and the Okanagan Boys and Girls Club.
Last year, over 9,000 pounds of food was collected.
“They’re overjoyed,” Madjar says. “To be able to stock up the Women’s Shelter for literally the entire year, I mean that’s incredible.”
His family loads up more than dozen truck loads to donate through the month of December.
“This is what Christmas is about,” says Madjar, who moved to Canada from Slovenia when he was a child.
While all residents around Gramiak Road do their own decorating, Madjar helps three of this neighbours who can’t put up their own lights.
The displays on Gramiak Road continue until Jan. 1.