ROSWELL, N.M. — There are about 40 trees in downtown Roswell, covered in lights.

“Whenever you’re driving down Main, it lifts your spirits, it’s lighting up the businesses. It gets dark so early,” said Wendie Marley, volunteer community coordinator with the Downtown Roswell Holiday Lighting Project. “We have a sense of pride in our main street in our town.”

She says seven years ago, that is not what downtown looked like. It was a street in Texas that inspired the Downtown Roswell Holiday Lighting Project — a tree sponsorship.

“I just thought we could break it down per tree. I could get the lights somehow, I could get the money somehow, and break it down tree by tree to have this paid for and I knew it could work,” she said.

If you want to sponsor the whole tree, it’s $500.

“However, it doesn’t have to be $500, it could be any amount, any amount, and that just goes towards getting the bill paid,” Marley said.

Putting up the lights is another process. They have to trim the trees and take the excess leaves off. The goal is to have it done before Thanksgiving.

 In 2022, the project was more than $20,000. Marley says she hopes in the future she can get a grant for the lights.

“It’s a community effort and I couldn’t do it without it. It just does something to us physically and mentally to see it and it just feels special.”