A long time Indian Rocks Beach Christmas tradition was saved this season by local organizations and businesses coming together.
- Tradition involves oversized Christmas cards
- Cards painted on plywood, were 30 years old
- New cards created this year
What tradition, you ask? Decades old oversized Christmas cards.
“Thirty years ago, they painted these on plywood,” said Bob Griffin, the president of the area's Executive Committee. “Over the years, the plywood got damaged, termites, and lately the rest of them burned up. As of March, there were none.”
Griffin said he proposed the idea to create new cards to the community. Nine organizations and 24 businesses answered the call.
“When I proposed the idea, the city told me they weren’t going to pay for it and I didn’t want them to pay for it,” he said. “So, basically I wrote letters to all the groups and businesses saying, 'Would you like to have one of these?'”
It cost $350 for each 4-by-8 foot card made from coroplast. The total cost for all 35 cards was more than $10,000.
“It’s a break-even project. So, every business paid for it,” said Griffin. “The interesting thing is that these signs hopefully will last 10 or 20 years.”
Artist Clif Militello created most of the cards with a personalized message and a little humor. ‘Deck The Hulls’ for the IRB Boat Club, ‘Have A Crabby Christmas’ for Crabby Bill’s and ‘Warmest Wishes’ for Slaughter Plumbing.
“It’s just cool that I have that opportunity to put a smile on somebody’s face,” said Militello. “On every one of these cards that I did there is a symbol on the bottom side. It is actually my logo because my signature is not readable.”
Griffin finished putting up all the cards around the city on Thursday.
“It’s truly a community project,” he said. “35 different businesses and organizations liked the idea, paid for it, got behind it and this is something that’s going to last for a long time.”