PRESS RELEASES • • •

Roper Mountain Holiday Lights Breaks Fundraising Record for Charity
More than $1 million donated over 14 years

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Rotary Club of Greenville has announced that Roper Mountain Holiday Lights raised $120,000 this season, which will benefit dozens of charitable causes in the community. The money will be split between the Rotary Club and the Roper Mountain Science Center Association -- co-producers of Holiday Lights -- and each will earmark the funds for charitable programs of its choice.

Mark Dullea, chairman of Roper Mountain Holiday Lights, said, “We owe so much to the corporate sponsors who supported Holiday Lights this year. Despite the ice storm, which took a toll on our car counts this year, we were still able to raise a record amount of money for charity because of all the companies who recognized the value of this great event.”
Although power never went out at Roper Mountain Holiday Lights, the ice storm caused significant damage to displays and knocked trees and power lines into the roads throughout the Roper Mountain Science Center. The event was forced to shut down for two days in December – two of the days that historically are among the busiest for Roper Mountain Holiday Lights.
Last year, Roper Mountain Holiday Lights raised $100,000 for charities, which means this year’s total was a 17 percent increase. In the 14 years that Holiday Lights has been in existence, a total of $1,068,000 has been raised and donated to charity.
The Roper Mountain Science Center Association is a fundraising arm of the Roper Mountain Science Center, so 100 percent of its share of the split will be given to that organization. The Rotary Club of Greenville has not yet designated which charities will share in the $60,000 it has to donate. In the past, the Rotary Club has donated the majority of its monies to education-based charities.

Roper Mountain Holiday Lights is an annual event held from Thanksgiving night to December 30, and features hundreds of towering light displays and landscape lighting. Visitors view the displays from their vehicles along a 1.5 mile drive that winds through the Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville.