A cooperative effort for new pole mounts for Quitman’s downtown Christmas decorations has been successful.

The Quitman Park and Recreation Board, Chamber of Commerce and high school ag welding students helped the city with the pole mounts depicting Christmas-related items throughout downtown. Mounts represented toy soldiers, presents and candy canes.

The drive to improve and have new pole mounts was headed by parks board vice president Taylor Webber.

“One of the first goals was to reinvent our Christmas décor in Quitman,” he said. “We had gotten complaints about the decorations being over 20 years old. Addressing those concerns was one of our first priorities. We thought it might be a good idea to include the kids at the high school and we knew we had kids who weld in the agriculture classes. This time of year they don’t get a lot of attention so I thought it would be a great opportunity. I feel like when kids do something to be proud of, the entire town flourishes.”

Taylor contacted Brant Lee at the Quitman ag department, and Webber said they all seemed to be excited about the prospects of building the mounts.

“We really didn’t give them a lot of notice but they were still able to make six brand new pole mounts for us and then the Hometown Christmas Committee furnished the rest,” Webber added. “Next year we are hoping to up the number of mounts to 14 and we hope to increase it each year in the future.”

The advanced welding class at QHS took on the opportunity of building the new mounts. Eight students were part of the team that took on the project.

“We originally thought it would be one kid per pole mount, but it ended up taking two students per mount because of the work involved,” Webber noted. “We were blessed because we did not give them a whole lot of notice, but the students really deserve the credit for coming through for us.  We are hoping to get more students involved next year. I think it’s great for the kids to make something they are proud of. Those students involved can come back and tell their kids about the pole mounts they were involved in creating. It’s an awesome opportunity, not only for us, but for the kids involved.”

What are the future goals? “I really want to involve even more kids in helping us create Christmas in Quitman a fun event,” Webber said. “We are really hoping to expand our efforts east on Goode St. (Hwy. 154) and south on Main St. (Hwy. 37) in the near future. That way it’s more than just a 10-second drive around the square.”