Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

Newbie Family Controller Fund


ItsMeBobO

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone! My name is Jerry and am 54 years old.  I am fairly new to the forum here.  I am married with 4 children (2 boys and 2 girls) and 3 grandsons.  For several years I did a static Christmas display then I ran into the Holiday Lightshow.  It had several built in songs and was much cooler than the static lights.  Using any other music tho did not produce any desirable results, so basically had to live with the built-in songs. I had a next door neighbor that for a couple years she loved the show, but then she suddenly became a very bitter woman, so much that I decided not to do any lights last year. Just didn't want to listen to her.  Well she finally moved this year so I new I wanted to do a much nicer display than I had ever done before.  I started searching YouTube for ideas when I started seeing all the LOR displays!!  I had seen a couple around the city but didn't know how they did it, and figured it would cost a fortune.  Sure the controllers aren't cheap, but not nearly what I thought they would cost.  Well since the rest of the neighbors and my kids loved the show I did I decided to go for the LOR.  I do small engine repair for an Ace Hardware so i don't make tons of money so I new it would start off as a small show and hope to continue growing each year.  I bought my first controller (LOR800W) on Ebay just to find out I couldn't use it without the 485 dongle so it sat for a while until I could buy a starter package.  Well i finally got to buy it. I also got a cmb24D rgb card and a ctb16pc kit. Just had to install the wires. I would love to have at least 1 more controller this year.  My last show I built a dome over my fountain and put lights on it.  It kinda looked like a snowglode without snow (I live in NE Florida) I would love to add that into this years show and I will place an inflatable penguin under it If I find a way to get 1 more controller this year.  I wired the light inside the penguin to work on the Lightshow.  Well win or not I am hooked on LOR.  I hope to do this each and every year until the good Lord calls me home.  I really don't ever see me getting too old to enjoy doing this for my kids and now gran kids!! God Bless to all those that make these things possible.

 

p.s. can someone tell me where you get this to display -->lor_16_lightglow_red.gif  I would love to add it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 126
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • ItsMeBobO

    17

  • greywolf

    9

  • Herbaclaus

    7

  • DougP

    6

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Hello everyone! My name is Jerry and am 54 years old.  I am fairly new to the forum here.  I am married with 4 children (2 boys and 2 girls) and 3 grandsons.  For several years I did a static Christmas display then I ran into the Holiday Lightshow.  It had several built in songs and was much cooler than the static lights.  Using any other music tho did not produce any desirable results, so basically had to live with the built-in songs. I had a next door neighbor that for a couple years she loved the show, but then she suddenly became a very bitter woman, so much that I decided not to do any lights last year. Just didn't want to listen to her.  Well she finally moved this year so I new I wanted to do a much nicer display than I had ever done before.  I started searching YouTube for ideas when I started seeing all the LOR displays!!  I had seen a couple around the city but didn't know how they did it, and figured it would cost a fortune.  Sure the controllers aren't cheap, but not nearly what I thought they would cost.  Well since the rest of the neighbors and my kids loved the show I did I decided to go for the LOR.  I do small engine repair for an Ace Hardware so i don't make tons of money so I new it would start off as a small show and hope to continue growing each year.  I bought my first controller (LOR800W) on Ebay just to find out I couldn't use it without the 485 dongle so it sat for a while until I could buy a starter package.  Well i finally got to buy it. I also got a cmb24D rgb card and a ctb16pc kit. Just had to install the wires. I would love to have at least 1 more controller this year.  My last show I built a dome over my fountain and put lights on it.  It kinda looked like a snowglode without snow (I live in NE Florida) I would love to add that into this years show and I will place an inflatable penguin under it If I find a way to get 1 more controller this year.  I wired the light inside the penguin to work on the Lightshow.  Well win or not I am hooked on LOR.  I hope to do this each and every year until the good Lord calls me home.  I really don't ever see me getting too old to enjoy doing this for my kids and now gran kids!! God Bless to all those that make these things possible.

 

p.s. can someone tell me where you get this to display -->lor_16_lightglow_red.gif  I would love to add it.

lor_64_snow_none.gif Found it!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations to FIVE newbie families who have won a scholarship from the Newbie Family Fund!

Each have been notified via PM they have won $330 which should cover a starter package or whatever they wish from LOR.

 

The donors wish the best to all families who were brave enough to post here and tell their story.   Sadly we could not gift something to everyone but  hope you are all able to make new Christmas memories with your children. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats everyone! Nice job pulling it all together Bob!

All the winners enjoy! And if in the future you can, pass it along.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

congrats to those who got this years newbie scholarship 

and may everyone have a wonderful season this year

my family and i will try again  :)

when bob  gives the word it's on  :)

altho i was able to get my starter  kit we will try to get the other equipment we'll need to do a show for this season

it's fun to try so we'll be back  :)

and just maybe 3rd time's the charm lol

see ya  round the forum :D

the laceys 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was one of the lucky ones to be honored with being chosen.

 

My family and I would like to thank EVERYONE who made this possible, this will definitely change our Christmas Lights tradition, not to mention enable us to start creating amazing Halloween displays. Thank you all so very much!

 

I will post pictures of our displays once they are up and running. Again, from my family and I, thank you very much! :wub:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yesterday was quite a day. Spent the day at a benefit golf tournament and fundraiser for a friends child who was diagnosed with a DIPG (www.thinkjohnbradley.com). Basically an inoperable brain tumor. He has been going through treatment at St Jude's, and is slated to be home this week. It was a day of great pride, along with some tears with a lot of good people who donated a lot of time and money to help this family out. It shows that the strength of family, friends and community can help you get through some of the worst.

 

My ride home was very long, almost 3 hours. However on the way home I got an email notification of a PM saying that we were one of the lucky 5 families. I was able to inform my wife when we got home, and we get to tell the kids at dinner tonight. We are very excited. It brought a great ending to a long day.

 

I know there is going to be a learning curve, but we are going to get started early. I am hoping I can get the kids to do some of the sequencing to some music. Our oldest is incredible with a computer, and they are both very creative.

 

We would like to extend out thanks to all the donors and the forum staff. You create a strong community here. We greatly appreciate your generosity in creating this fund, and being able to award it to 5 families. That speaks volumes. You all are awesome!

 

Following in the footsteps of my cousin and our desire to help others, we plan to do more than create a Christmas light show with this. This scholarship award is going to be the start of something good. We can't wait!

 

Thank You Very Much. Look forward to interacting with you all in the forums!

 

The Forgues Family

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want to thank all of the generous donors and supporters of this year's newbie fund. We were chosen as one of the five extremely lucky families and I can't wait to get started on our display!  My wife and I were in shock when we read the email!  We are all so excited and our kids are already asking about which songs we will use. This means so much to us and we will definitely post our display in here so you can see what all your generous donations helped us do. This is a wonderful program and we really appreciate the LOR community helping us newbies out so we can bring our display to the next level. I love the idea of paying it forward so more families can be helped each year!  I have a lot to learn, so I'm sure you'll be getting to know me well in the forums.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations to the winners! I'm sure you'll make some great memories for those who come to hear your lights! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

This truly is a special program.    Our admiration and deep appreciation go out to all those supporting this initiative and especially Bob L. for his time and energy in facilitating the effort.   It is heart warming to  find a community of folks so selfless that they not only go through the cost and labor to put out amazing displays simply to delight others, but to then go even farther to seed displays in other locations and families - that is truly a spectacular act.    We are honored to be associated with you folks, and are deeply thankful for the gift you have bestowed.   To say that we are extremely excited to put out our first display this year would be a ridiculous understatement.  The hundreds of hours we've invested in preparation for this upcoming season has brought our family even closer.   I can’t tell you how much we appreciate the help you have given us from the dumb newbie questions through to this gift.    Thank-you all so very much.  Please count on us for donations next year to keep the hobby moving forward!   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I want to thank everyone who donated and BobO for putting the fund together. I was lucky winner and have just received my controller the other day. I have playing with some of the controls and showing my 6 year daughter what it can do. She is eager to help with getting the decorations out and the lights up. Can not wait! Thanks to everyone that helped out!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Ok, here goes my application (cue the violins).

 

I work in downtown San Francisco and live 120 miles away. Why would I do that? Well, during the last recession, the Central Valley of California was hit hard. I was in the homebuilding industry that was hit the hardest of all and found that the only place for me to find a job was in the Bay Area. However, even IF we could have sold our home (for 1/2 of what it's worth) we couldn't afford to live in San Francisco, where condos cost between $1,000 to $1,200 PER SQUARE FOOT! Can you imagine paying $1,000,000 for an 833 square foot CONDO?... and no yard for LOR?

 

Needless to say, being the good Dad, my kids (14 yo son and 7 yo daughter) and my wife continue to live in our rural home, go to the same great schools, and have our animals on acreage while for the past 3 years I've spent most of my life in my car or away from home working in tiny, expensive, noisy places. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, and I love to work, but I also love my family and spending quality time with them.

 

Before the great recession my son and I had been doing homework on LOR. I thought that it would be an amazing hobby for the two of us and to give back to our community however, now I spend most of my what would have been LOR funds on gas, repairs and maintenance to my vehicle.

 

I still have a huge desire to put together an amazing display. I just need some help to get it going. I have a background in music and sequencing would be a breeze. I've already got song in my head for a Halloween display- starting with "Funeral for a Friend" by Elton John. We have a 30' flag pole in our front yard that I think would make the most amazing Mega tree and we are part of the local rodeo so a 4th of July display is a given. Since we live on a hill and there are no other large displays around, people would come from all around to see what we have done and enjoy.

 

Please consider my application for his contest.

 

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

well i wish this years winners  a very happy merry Christmas and happy new year

and to everyone here as well

 

since my purchase of  my software kit i've been trying to get a controller to get my display off the ground but i have not much success (finances) 

so for the 2013 season my shows are at this point "on hold "

 

i'm not sure what this would do for my licence  whether it will be still good or not  since not able to use it this year 

maybe next year :)

 

so: may everyone have a merry Christmas and a happy new year

 

the laceys

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hi everyone 

 

my name is chuck      i guess you can call me a newbie. i do have one of those 6 channel gemmy light controllers but its 10 yrs old and doesn't sound very good but its what i have :(. it may be to late to enter for this fund but nothing beats a failure but a try, so i don't expect to get this fund but i thought i'd try. i do have software for the lor controller and have been trying to setup some sequences.my son who is 21 now does help me setup our gemmy light display.if anyone has a lor controller that is bad and they want to get rid of i will pay for the shipping because a bad lor controller is better than a gemmy light controller.

 

thanks and have a merry christmas :D   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So far so good. Me and the family have put together and started running our first show thanks to the contributors of this fund.

 

We were originally anticipating each family program their favorite Christmas song. However some member did not realize how long of a process this is. Some of the songs are still in progress, but will be added when they are done.

 

Our plan is to build an audience this year, then continue to do so over the summer/fall for next year. We skipped out on the fundraiser portion this year to concentrate on finishing the show. However we plan to incorporate this into next year.

 

We definitely have been bitten by the bug and hope to extend the show greatly for next year! Thanks to Everyone who made this possible!

 

The Forgues

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...