Two Bethel Park High School students are lending their marketing prowess to the municipality to help promote its annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, one of the community’s most beloved traditions.
Salome Ferreyra and Kayla Weiss, both high school juniors and members of the DECA club, are leading the integrated marketing campaign as part of their preparation for the DECA state conference in February. DECA is an international student organization that prepares emerging leaders for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management through real-world business experiences and competitive events. This marks the first time the municipality has partnered with DECA students to promote the event.
The ceremony, traditionally held on a weeknight, has been moved to the weekend and will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Bethel Park Community Center. Organizers hope to increase attendance from last year’s estimated 200–300 guests to around 500.
“It’s more than a tree lighting, it’s a way to bring the community together,” Weiss said. “We still want kids to join us, but there are activities and vendors for people of all ages. The event will be a success if we see more attendance, but of course, we’d like it to help our DECA performance, too.”
This year’s expanded celebration will feature a holiday market with 12-15 vendors selling items such as books, candles, jewelry, pastries, dog treats, dips, and wine, along with two farm booths offering traditional goods like fresh milk and farm-to-table eggs. Complimentary refreshments will be provided, including a hot cocoa bar.
Additional attractions include a gingerbread contest with houses on display, a life-size gingerbread village, cardboard gingerbread houses created by local organizations, face-painting, a LEGO train display, cookie decorating, a reindeer food station, and letters to Santa. Special activities will also include a Mad Science demonstration where children can make “snowball slime.”
Character appearances are scheduled throughout the event, including Santa, Buddy the Elf, the Grinch, the Abominable Snowman, and the Riverhounds mascot. New this year, Santa will be available from the start of the event, and local musicians will perform throughout the day. Activities will also be spread throughout the entire community center rather than confined to a single space.
“We have a minimal window to spread the word about such a remarkable community event, and we take that responsibility extremely seriously,” Weiss said. “We’re excited to put our marketing skills to use to help boost awareness and make sure as many people as possible know about everything the tree-lighting ceremony has to offer.”
Ferreyra acknowledged that balancing schoolwork with the demands of promoting a large community event has been challenging, but also very rewarding.
“It’s been a challenge balancing our academic schedules against helping to pull off an event of this scale, especially on such short notice,” Ferreyra said. “However, we have really buckled down and carved time into our schedules to generate ideas and find ways to execute on them.”
DECA advisor, Mrs. Emily Smoller, said she wanted to connect the students with a real-world project that would allow them to apply their classroom skills in a meaningful way.
“I knew they were creative students, but I wanted to match them up with a real-world project,” Smoller said. “I knew they could handle an integrated marketing campaign in the community. It will be cool for them to see their work helping the community and identifying areas that could be improved upon.”
The Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony is free and open to the public.
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