Support our Light up Corning initiative by sponsoring a tree. Your contribution can be anonymous or will be highlighted on our forthcoming Gaffer District - Light Up Corning web page, newsletter mentions, and strategically placed signage around the district.

Your donations will help us raise enough money to replace the funds we reallocated to light the trees and to help cover the cost of the infrastructure repairs for our 2025 expenditures. We will update our goal in 2026 to offset the cost of the continued lighting and maintenance of the trees as well as start a reserve fund to ensure our community sparkles indefinitely.

What is a “cycle?”
A cycle is the length of time that the lights can stay in the trees. The trees grow and the lights constrict around the trunk and branches. It has been determined that the maximum length of time that lights can remain in the trees is five years. At the end of the cycle, the lights need to be cut out of the trees, the trees need to be trimmed, and the lights need to be reinstalled. It is more cost effective to cut the lights out of the trees during pruning than to remove the strands and reinstall them. The installation takes many hours of work by a contractor with a lift. Every year, some lights go out necessitating the contractor to come out and replace the lights on the trees that don't work - sometimes that is relighting the whole tree, sometimes we can replace a strand. The five year cycle for our trees on Market Street costs approximately $187,000. The first year with the full light replacement is the most expensive with consecutive years costing approximately $27,000 a year for maintenance.

Help us keep the trees lit by donating!

“Light Up Corning”
This adopt a tree program will be $1000 a tree for the full cycle, $500 for a half, $250 for a quarter, and an option to donate any amount desired. Donors can pledge their support, and if desired break their donation into monthly installments. We will provide marketing for any donor who would like recognition. The recognition will be listed on a new Light Up Corning page of our website (under construction), newsletter mentions, social media posts, signage in Centerway Square, signage at strategic locations on Market Street and Bridge Street, and QR codes strategically placed around town and given as stickers to business owners. These QR codes will allow anyone who scans the code to see everyone who donated to make our community sparkle. Of course, there is always the option to donate without recognition.

Thank you for your support!

Light Up Corning

By Corning Gaffer District Inc

Light Up Corning

Help us light, and keep lit, all the trees on Market and Bridge Streets

Team Members