Decorating Day
More than 100 Volunteers Help Decorate the Park and More than 30 Organizations Help Decorate The Flower Baskets and Barrels
Santa Claus is expected in Olean less than 10 days from now, but Saturday, November 8, he had more than 100 volunteers assist with putting up the decorations in Lincoln and War Veterans Park, in Olean. Seventeen organizations assisted with the decorations: Olean Community School/Americore Group; Cattaraugus County Association of Realtors; PizzaLand; Southern Tier Catholic School; Archbishop Walsh; Home Depot; Even Start; Transfiguration Church; St. Bonaventure University Alpha Phi Omega; Checkmate Contracting; Olean Girl Scouts; Olean YMCA OASIS; the Olean Rotary Club; City of Olean; Stroehmann’s Bakeries; the Southern Tier Military Support Group; Advanced Monolythic Ceramics; and Olean Exchange Club.
Santa’s elves decorated the parks by: lighting up Santa’s cottage; placing cone shaped trees; setting up Rally in the Valley Santa, the rocking horse, Seasons Greeting sign; 8 reindeer, Santa’s train, snowmen, twelve arches, triangle trees; lighting up the gazebo; four foot high wreaths; and placing more than 150 strands of lights on bushes and trees.
Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce and the Santa committee also invited groups, organizations, school classes 
to ‘adopt’ a basket and a barrel along Union and State Streets and decorate them. The City of Olean provided the holiday pine boughs and the Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce the holiday bows. All SEVENTY-FOUR baskets and barrels were adopted by the following groups, individuals and organizations: Harvest Field Outreach; McCarthy’s Emporium; Jared McCarthy; Beef ‘n’ Barrel Restaurant; Immanuel Christian Child Care; Park Centre Development; City of Olean; Joyful Rescues; GOACC; Rainfresh Laundromat; Portville Bunny Tails, Olean Creative Mailing Service; Uptown Florist; Amy Vena; Five Star Bank; Dance Arts, Green Acres Cafe; Ask Design Jewelers; Community Bank, NA; NeighborWORKS; Ray's Barber Shop; Ivers J. Norton Elementary; Char Granger; Olean Middle School OASIS; and Alex Whipple.
The City of Olean, Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce, and its Santa Claus Lane committee want to improve and stimulate the Olean community both economically and socially by providing the best “light show” in the Southern Tier. The holiday lights attract people from a 100 mile radius to travel to Olean for recreation, services, and shopping. The decorations will be lit up officially on Friday, November 28, during the 23rd Annual Santa Claus Lane parade. For more information regarding Santa Claus Lane, please contact GOACC at 372-4433, stop in at GOACC, 120 North Union, Olean, or email santa@oleanny.com.
RIGHT DOWN SANTA CLAUS LANE