Festival of Lights to benefit Newton Hospital Heart Center

Newton - The Newton Memorial Hospital Foundation will be host the 14th annual Festival of Lights Nov. 19, sponsored by Smith-McCracken and Wood Funeral Homes. William Scarpa, M.D., will serve as chairman of the event, which marks the beginning of the holiday season, for the fourth straight year. The festivities will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a donor reception in the hospital lobby at 175 High St., Newton. The reception will be followed by the lighting of the Christmas trees at the entrance drive to the hospital, and weather permitting, by a fireworks display presented by Zambelli fireworks, sponsored by Bell BMW of Newton. All proceeds from this year’s event will help support the new Charles L. Tice Heart Center for Diagnostic Services currently being constructed on the hospital’s grounds. The late C. Edward McCracken, a foundation trustee, founded the Festival of Lights with the idea of a creating a way for the community to honor or remember loved ones during the holiday season. The community, together with the Newton Memorial Hospital family, will contribute to the fundraiser by donating strings of lights for $30 each, or an entire tree for $200, in honor of someone special, in memory of a loved one or just to add beauty to the holiday season. All donors will have their names listed in a printed program and on a donor board displayed in the main lobby of the hospital for a full year. For information, call 973-579-8309.r