Tri-City Sun

Residents began appearing around 6:45 p.m., rolling slowly down Center Avenue at the edge of Wenonah Park in downtown Bay City to see the Christmas tree lighting the day after Thanksgiving, according to Bridge Michigan.

The Christmas tree lighting ceremony is an annual event for families in the community. Typically, about 1,500 people attend the ceremony each year. 

However, Dave Clements, who manages the tree lighting, was not happy when he witnessed families getting out of their vehicles and walking toward the park. 

Most wore masks and practiced social distancing, but for Clements, there were too many people attending the ceremony amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Clements, a 61-year-old retired electrical contractor, previously suggested that there should be no celebration in public this year. 

Gatherings outside of more than 25 people had already been banned by the state in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Experts said the order made sense in places like Bay City. 

“I was just going to flip the switch and the tree would be lit,” Clements told Bridge Michigan. “But people showed up anyway.”

Some people in town suggested that the tree should not go up at all this year. However, Clements didn’t like that idea that, either. 

“This thing (the pandemic) has taken so much from us,” Clements said, according to Bridge Michigan. “It wasn’t going to take our tree, too.”

COVID-19 has taken many lives, jobs and closed businesses in the Michigan town with a population of 33,000. However, the personal losses that people feel are harder to enumerate. Since the coronavirus was first reported in the town, there has been a steady flow of empty church choir lofts and empty church pews. Young couples are missing out on date night at restaurants due to indoor dining restrictions imposed on the state. 

According to Bridge Michigan, Bay City is in the middle of another devastating outbreak of coronavirus cases, as is much of the state of Michigan.