On Sunday, December 4, 2011, Partners of Black River Memorial Hospital held their 25^th Annual Love Light Ceremony at Black River Memorial Hospital.  The night included a welcome, invocation and musical entertainment. After group carol singing, refreshments were served in the hospital cafeteria.

The Love Light program was started in 1986 by Jean Hopkins after she learned about it at a Partners convention. It became a family tradition with son Tim, daughters Lori Hopkins and Kathleen Peterson all taking part. After Jean passed away, the rest of the family carried on the program. Lori passed away this year and many memorials were made in her name.

The Partners of Black River Memorial Hospital start the Love Light season by selling Love Lights during their annual Holiday Tea in November, and continuing to take in names and money for the program through December. The work of the Hopkins family continues on today. Peterson collects all the names and money and does the computer data entry. Peterson’s daughter Kate Phillips and granddaughter, Anna take part in the program. Tim does repairs as necessary to keep the lights in working order.

“It used to take many more Partners to run the Love Light program. We had to do a lot more by hand,” said Peterson. “My brother, Tim wrote a computer program to enter and alphabetize the names for the plaque and program, so it only takes a few people to get it all done.” The current committee members are Peterson, Hopkins, Phillips, Marilyn McKeeth, Dolores Iliff, Sarah Osegard and Cindy Clark.