How You Can Help Collingwood Lights

UPDATE: A reader reports the donations link does not appear to be working. If you’d still like to help contact Bill Vaughan at: potomacbillv@gmail.com

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This is the 24th year for the holiday lights display at Bill Vaughan’s home on Collingwood Road, with 400,000 lights creating a holiday wonderland.

But some sort of computer glitch — he think possibly a virus that was downloaded — is creating havoc for this year’s light display and as of Monday, it’s dark.

“The show runs flawlessly for an hour and a half and then it goes wacky,” he said Monday morning. “I think a virus corrupted my programs. I’m dark. I’ve been trouble-shooting the last three days. I’ve had to eliminate some controllers that were destroyed.”

Vaughan is hoping that a “holiday lights guru” in Kansas will be able to diagnose the problem and help him get the lights back on.

Although he has added more lights each year, they are increasingly LED lights, which are less expensive on Vaughan’s electric bill (one year it was more than $900 for the month of December). He takes the entire month of November off of his job as a general contractor, spending 12-hour days preparing the display.

Anyone who enjoys the lights can get in touch with Vaughan to help curtail the costs associated ($700 per day to rent a lift, light bill, days Vaughan isn’t making money working at his general contracting job, possibly finding a trouble shooter, etc.).

Email Vaughan at: potomacbillv@gmail.com.