Lighting up for the holiday

Jenny Marder

Six-year-old Chelsea Ermel was scared that Santa Claus wouldn’t find

her house if it had no Christmas lights.

Chelsea’s fears were eased when she came home last Thursday to

find colored icicle lights outlining each window and bright red bows

and snowflakes dotting the walls.

Electrosystems Electric Inc. decorated homes for 11 Surf City

families this year. For four years now, the electric system company

has been supplying strings of lights and labor to elderly and

low-income residents who can’t afford their own decorations.

“For me personally, this is a really hard Christmas,” said

Chelsea’s mother, Lauralea Ermel. “But to come home every day and see

the building lit up, it really helps us to get into the Christmas

spirit.”

The Downtown Huntington Beach apartment building is home to nine

single mothers and their children. Ermel, 31, also said the lights

help to quell the stigma associated with the low-income building.

“It’s nice for [neighbors] to have something to look at, too, and

know we’re not the dregs of the earth,” said the single mom. “The

lights go a long way to break that image.”

Mitch Cottrell, president of Electrosystems Electric Inc. is

always surprised by how much people appreciate the gesture.

“We thought that it would be something nice to give back to people

that needed something,” Cottrell said. “Most people can’t believe

we’re doing it. To us, it doesn’t seem like that big of a thing.

Cottrell pays $300 to $400 to purchase and install lights for each

home.

The demand for decorations was high this year, and local stores

were running short on the biggest holiday craze -- icicle lights. But

Cottrell didn’t let that stop him.

He gathered his employees and taught them how to fashion homemade

icicle lights.

“We bought extra lights and made them icicles,” Cottrell said. “We

doubled them up. It took about an hour or so.”

They also bought and installed cup hooks to make it easier for

homeowners to install their own lights in the future.

“I hope that people like them,” Cottrell said. “These things that

we’re doing for people will maybe inspire them to do something for

someone else.”