QC Botanical Garden (Ryan Wille Winter Lights December 2024)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got Ryan Willey from the Quad City Botanical Center
here today talking about right away how many lights Again,
we have.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Just over a quarter million lights this year. So that's
that's a record high for us.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Well okay, so it's a quarter million or just over that.
What kind of volunteer numbers are we talking about? Maybe
not a quarter a million, but fairly involved process just
to get those lights.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Up, oh, thousands of hours? You know. We start preparing
usually mid August. You know. The first thing we do
is we make sure our power situation is taken care of.
Were running extension cords, We're hiding them, you know, making
sure they're safe, making sure our infrastructure is ready to go.
And then in September the volunteers start coming and I

(00:43):
mean we're hanging lights up up until the day we
open typically.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well along with the lights being hung, you're still open
for other things.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
So correct, how.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Do you make that all work? How do you negotiate that?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
You know, We've got a very talented office manager who
keeps our calendar for us, you know, and we just
we try to stay out of the way of the
guests and when we're open, you know, for general viewing
while we're hanging lights, and of course we do operate
in the evening hours while we're getting ready to that
way we can see what the lights look like instead
of having a wonder you know, if we're hanging them
in the daylight.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Well, you know what, that doesn't that's a good point.
That's a veteran move on your part, and it seems
like it's it's so fitting the convenience of having Mid
American so close to you because mid American Mid American
ends up becoming prominently displayed here when we talk about
the Winter Night's display.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh my gosh, the support that they've given us over
the last four years is our title sponsor is just amazing,
you know. So of course they're a title sponsor, as
you noted, they also provide volunteer hours. They have a
special Mid American Energy Company employee Night where the folks
that work here come out celebrate with their family and friends.
And we've we've loved our natural partnership with them for

(01:56):
the last four years.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Talking to Ryan Willie from the Odd City Botanical Center
and Ryan, another thing that is so great about this, Yes,
winter lights display looks fantastic and will for the next
few weeks. But it also there are other programs that
are going on during this time too.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh gosh. Yeah, So there's there's special events that happened
throughout the display. We've got our Lights and Flights, which
is a partnership with Crawford Brewworks, Bent River Brewery and
Huckleberry's Pizza and kel Zones and Rock Island.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh my goodness, excuse me, give me a say, wait
a minute, wait and give me a second on that.
Once you said cal Zones, I'm all in on this stuff.
So I'm kind of distracted, but still but but that's
great that you I guess that's that's another great thing
on the Botanical Center that it's the the whole community

(02:52):
is involved to make this go.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
You know, we try in and as a tourism you know,
anchor in in downtown Island. We love to spread the
love with businesses that surround us. And if that means
bringing them a few hundred visitors that might not have
known about their business before, we consider that a win.
And it's a wonderful experience for our guests too, getting
to experience something that we're not experts. And we can

(03:17):
take care of the lights and then our beer and
food partners. They take care of the flight. Perfect partnership.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
It does work out really well. So with all of
these different programs. Now, I saw you a few days ago,
maybe it was a couple of weeks ago, saw you
with Jen and I forgot our last name, but you
were on Channel six and that was about which program
that you were talking about.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
That's about the Culture Bright, which was a two week
series of events that culminated in a special event at
the Botanical Center with our friends at the Figy Art Museum,
Putnam Museum, Quad City Arts, Quad City Symphony Orchestra and
Common Cord and all those folks came out and engage
with our guests in the community in their own special

(03:58):
way with their missions and just an amazing night that
we hope to be able to continue into the future.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Well that's the beauty too again crossing the river. The
river does not divide us. It can unite us. And
you can find out some of the other things that
are going on with the programs that will happen. First off,
how long will Winter Lights go on again this year
at the Botanical Center.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
We're going through the thirty first right now. We're open
Wednesday through Sunday, and then we get a little closer
to the twenty fifth. I believe it's starting on the
eighteenth or open seven days a week, closed on Christmas
even Christmas Day. Otherwise. We're open now through the end
of December thirty first.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
And with some of the other special programs that might
be coming up, I mean you had referenced a couple
of them here already, but with some of the other
things that are coming up, website obviously will come in handy.
So what is that again?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
That's Qcgardens dot com. You can find info about Santa.
We've got dog friendly nights, something for everybody. Qscygardens dot
com has everything you need to know.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Now with the t train event or the train display
that you have on the outside, are there any trains
and you got to have trains inside, don't you?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
We don't have trains inside this year. We've added some
other activities to kind of take that space up. But
in the railroad garden you're referencing, we call that our
Conductor's Garden during the winter Light's display and something super
special you talked about crossing the River Brian over at
the Quad City Symphony Orchestra provided us a special tracks
from their holiday brass concert, so we took that we

(05:31):
played through the speakers, and we program our lights to
dance to local music. So it's one of those dancing
light displays. Wow, the coolest provided. Like you said, from
across the river. I always tell guests, if I were
any good at golf, I could hit a golf ball
from my office over to the symphony orchestra. I'm not
good at golf, so I don't do that. But it's
so cool to have these experts, you know, be willing

(05:54):
to work with us and create a wonderful experience.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
For the guests. It takes a village, and it takes
a village to make Winter Lights another success. Again. To
find out more, what can they do there

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Ryan Jusegardens dot com