Case in Point

Wilton Window Walk back after pandemic pause

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The annual Wilton Chamber of Commerce Window Walk was one of the many things lost to 2020 last year, as we suffered through the COVID-19 pandemic. It's a pandemic that is still ongoing as some, including this editor, feel. Yet that is a discussion for another time.

The Chamber, under the discretion of its board and executive VP Brandy Marquez, made the right call last year by canceling the event. While COVID numbers are again on the rise nationwide, including here in Iowa, there may have been some fear by Chamber officials and/or the public when making the decision to have the event this year. I support the idea of bringing it back, as most festivals are again happening.

The Window Walk was held Sunday evening, Dec. 5, and the weather was beautiful, as it happened prior to the high winds that came in over night.

The "Christmas movies" theme was fun, and there were some new venues mixed in with some old when it came to the "who, what, where, when" components of the evening.

Santa and Mrs. Claus had a new place to meet children, in the former Wilton Realty building on the corner of Maurer and Fourth streets.

While it provided a bit of a smaller overall footprint, I felt it was a nice space, including a perfect separate room with an open window to present the treat bags.

Being in a corner building also provided a nice flow for the line to see Santa, which always had a good number of parents and kids waiting to give their wish list to the big guy in red.

For those of us planning open houses in our businesses, we were forced with new challenges amid this pandemic. We are known for providing tasty treats at the Advocate News office, most of which are essentially "finger foods." This year, my worry was having the food just out on large platters for anyone and everyone to touch.

We made some modifications. Instead of making different kinds of dessert bars, we went with cupcakes ā€” an individually wrapped treat that could be picked up and/or presented one-at-a-time. We also provided our annual meat and cheese on plates with predetermined portions.

See the picture of our spread above. We tried to make it as simple as possible for guests. Was I the only person in town thinking of these kinds of things? Likely not. Was I the only one who cared and made the proper modifications? Perhaps. Yet health and safety is important, and continues to be on my mind as we navigate this new normal ā€” or what I hope to be merely normal for now.

I'm thankful to my mother, Tami Sawvell, and ad manager, Amber Ganzer, who took time out of their weekends to bake for the event, and decorate our office for the holiday season, including the tree with the vintage Disney ornaments that get a lot of fanfare from area youth (and adults alike).

We hope fun was had by all Sunday night. I felt like crowd numbers were down. While I have theories about it, I'll reserve that for another time. I'll only say that we were very happy the event was back, happy to participate, and hope to do it again in future years.

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