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The 20th annual lighting of the Hotel Stilwell Christmas tree Monday night featured a look into the past and a bright future for a local couple.
Laura Carlson, Stilwell Foundation executive director, said that for the first five years, the lighting ceremonies had to be held outside because the historic hotel building, which narrowly escaped demolition by the City of Pittsburg, wasn’t deemed safe enough for the public to enter.
“For our first lighting ceremony in 1992, Gene DeGruson stood on the hotel balcony with a bullhorn in his hand, and the tree was on the balcony,” Carlson said. “The cord for the lights was plugged in at Otto’s Cafe.”
Those attending the ceremony, she added, stood across the street on a lot that was then empty.
“In 1997, we were finally able to invite people inside the Stilwell,” Carlson said.
Christmas tree lights are purchased through $25 donations, and these funds helped preserve and restore the Stilwell. Now they are used for upkeep and improvements.
Jerry Waltrip read the names of this year’s light donors and those honored or memorialized by the lights.
The theme this year was Spanish and Mexican Christmas traditions, researched by Lura Patrick and presented by Lynda Nelson. In keeping with this, the Pittsburg High School Girls Glee presented a selection of Spanish language Christmas songs.
And then came a surprise. Sara Henry announced that Matt Crittenden, Stilwell webmaster and new board member, would talk about the historic hotel’s web site.
“Sara, she lied,” Crittenden said. “Now, in the tradition of Charlie Brown and everybody else who makes a spectacle of themselves during the holidays, I’ve been a good boy this year and I’d like one of my presents early.”
That present was Priscilla Moore. The couple have known each other around a year.
“When the wind blows I swear it’s whispering her name to me,” Crittenden said.
Then he knelt in front of Moore, who was sitting in the front row of the audience in the Stilwell lobby, opened a ring box and said, “Will you be my wife?”
“Of course I’ll be your wife,” Moore replied tearfully.
He placed the ring on her finger, and then she stood, faced the audience and said, “Hi, everybody,” and showed off her engagement ring.
While the couple had discussed marriage, Moore said later that she had no idea Crittenden was going to pop the question Monday night at the Stilwell program.
The 20th annual lighting of the Hotel Stilwell Christmas tree Monday night featured a look into the past and a bright future for a local couple.
Laura Carlson, Stilwell Foundation executive director, said that for the first five years, the lighting ceremonies had to be held outside because the historic hotel building, which narrowly escaped demolition by the City of Pittsburg, wasn’t deemed safe enough for the public to enter.
“For our first lighting ceremony in 1992, Gene DeGruson stood on the hotel balcony with a bullhorn in his hand, and the tree was on the balcony,” Carlson said. “The cord for the lights was plugged in at Otto’s Cafe.”
Those attending the ceremony, she added, stood across the street on a lot that was then empty.
“In 1997, we were finally able to invite people inside the Stilwell,” Carlson said.
Christmas tree lights are purchased through $25 donations, and these funds helped preserve and restore the Stilwell. Now they are used for upkeep and improvements.
Jerry Waltrip read the names of this year’s light donors and those honored or memorialized by the lights.
The theme this year was Spanish and Mexican Christmas traditions, researched by Lura Patrick and presented by Lynda Nelson. In keeping with this, the Pittsburg High School Girls Glee presented a selection of Spanish language Christmas songs.
And then came a surprise. Sara Henry announced that Matt Crittenden, Stilwell webmaster and new board member, would talk about the historic hotel’s web site.
“Sara, she lied,” Crittenden said. “Now, in the tradition of Charlie Brown and everybody else who makes a spectacle of themselves during the holidays, I’ve been a good boy this year and I’d like one of my presents early.”
That present was Priscilla Moore. The couple have known each other around a year.
“When the wind blows I swear it’s whispering her name to me,” Crittenden said.
Then he knelt in front of Moore, who was sitting in the front row of the audience in the Stilwell lobby, opened a ring box and said, “Will you be my wife?”
“Of course I’ll be your wife,” Moore replied tearfully.
He placed the ring on her finger, and then she stood, faced the audience and said, “Hi, everybody,” and showed off her engagement ring.
While the couple had discussed marriage, Moore said later that she had no idea Crittenden was going to pop the question Monday night at the Stilwell program.
The two met through a mutual friend, though indirectly. Moore, who worked at Walmart, went into the break area and heard the friend talking to Crittenden on the telephone and thought his voice sounded cute.
At the time he was living in Illinois, but the two began conversing over Facebook.
“First we talked for 30 minutes, then an hour, then five hours, then the sun was coming up and we’d talked all night,” Crittenden said. “I came out here all the way from Illinois to see Priscilla.”
They played miniature golf and had dinner on their first date.
“When it was time for me to go I cried because I didn’t want to lose her,” Crittenden said. “I made plans to move here to be with her.”
There were a few who were in on his secret plan to propose, including Henry and Carlson, who were delighted.
“It’s a Stilwell love story,” Carlson said.
