Visitors to the Allegheny County Courthouse this holiday season will see a few new festive embellishments.
Along with the colorful globes that normally adorn the county’s official tree, nearly 100 ornaments created by local school districts have been added to the boughs.
Every district in the county was invited to use recycled scrap material to create an ornament representing the district itself and one for each of the communities within its borders.
“We got a lot of good response and a lot of great ornaments,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. “Different makes of scrap materials that don’t even look like scarp materials. They look fantastic.”
In all, 22 districts representing 74 municipalities responded.
“How they forged them and melted them were kind of unique and really pretty,” Fitzgerald said.
The county has been erecting a tree in its courtyard for nearly 40 years. This is the first time it has taken the approach of having the ornaments submitted.
“The teachers and school systems and the students themselves and the parents of these kids should be proud. There was a lot of good innovation,” Fitzgerald said.
County staff reviewed the submissions and deemed the Carlynton School district as having the best submissions.The district, which includes Carnegie, Rosslyn Farms, and Crafton, was then invited to send musicians and other representatives to the lighting ceremony Friday at 5:30 p.m.
