NSBNEWS.net video by Sera King. Video highlights: Performances by the Showdolls and singer Roxi Tomei and the lighting of the Christmas tree atop Bert Fish Medical Center.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Christmas came early to Bert Fish Medical Center. Santa Claus pressed the button to light up the Christmas tree atop the hospital and performances by the Showdolls of New Smyrna Beach High School highlighted Sunday night's entertainment before some 500 people.
Though the crowd thinned considerably after the first 90 minutes of the 6 p.m. gathering in front of the hospital, dozens remained to the end to see the tree lit up shortly before 8:30 p.m.
"Lights of Love" was the theme of the evening, sponsored by the Bert Fish Medical Center Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the hospital that raised $12,000 for the hospital through this event, said Garry Mac, hospital spokesman who served as emcee.
This was the third year the annual tree-lighting ceremony was held outside. Besides The Showdolls, assisted by the beautiful singing of New Smyrna Beach High School junior Roxi Tomei and her father. Larry, other performances were put on by the Indian River Elementary School chorus, children of the the Lighthouse Worship Center of New Smyrna Beach and rock band NO Big Deal of Knoxville, Tenn., whose lead singer is friends with Mac.
Santa was escorted to the hospital by the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department's ladder truck.
The tree will be turned on every night at 7:40 p.m. through Christmas. It stands more than two stories high on the four-story hospital just south of the South Causeway Bridge on Palmetto.