We are the current group of local volunteers who organise, maintain and fundraise for the streetlamp Christmas Lights around Banff and Macduff, including all 90 motifs, 4 christmas trees at Banff Primary, Macduff Primary, The Harvest Centre and Macduff Maritime Garden, and the feature lights around the towns like the Banff/Macduff signs and the Season's Greetings Light on the petrol station. (excluding Low St and Strait Path, that is a separate display).

Most have us have been involved as helpers for the last 3 years, some people even less. The last couple of years we've aimed to raise at least £3000-4000 each year through a mix of donations, sponsorship from local businesses, and proceeds from fundraising events such as our Quiz Night and Duck Race.

The fixed costs for putting the lights up each year is just under £2000 (mainly insurance and pat testing, and some other consumables such as the stainless steel banding used to fix the lights in place). When we raise more than that, we can spend the excess on repairs, replacements and improvements to the displays around the towns.

Our regular fundraising events planned for this year all had to be cancelled which, like for many charities, has made raising enough money much harder. We've been fortunate to have helpers capable of repairing many of the broken and faded lights over the last year. Buying the parts for repairs is substantially cheaper than buying more brand new lights and has meant we've been able to make a large impact on a reduced budget.

We're very pleased with the display this year, and given the difficult situation facing all the other local charities and community groups as well right now, we don't want to be extravagant with our target. If we can raise around £2000 this year, this should fully cover our overheads for putting the same display up next year, which we hope you'd love as much as we would.