The Feasterville Business Association recently hosted its 22nd annual Blue Light Holiday Tree Lighting in memory of fallen police officers during the holiday period. The event was held at the Lower Southampton Township Library, 1983 Bridgetown Pike in Feasterville.
Pictured (from L) is Steve Castle, a township supervisor; state Rep. Joe Hogan; Lower Southampton chief of police Ted Krimmel; retired township supervisor Ed Shannon; township supervisor Ray Weldie; event chairperson and emcee Michael J. Hughes; township supervisor Deborah Kaplan; and Rev. John J. Kelly, of the Assumption BVM Catholic Church in Feasterville, who provided a memorial invocation and blessed the tree.
Both Weldie and Castle are retired Lower Southampton police officers.
The tree will stay lit every night throughout the holiday period.
Project Blue Light was started in 1989 by the late Dolly Craig to honor the memory of her son-in-law, Philadelphia police officer Daniel Gleason, who was killed in the line of duty in 1986. Craig sent a message to Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc., saying she would be placing two blue lights in her window — one for Gleason and one in memory of his wife Pam, who was killed in an auto accident in 1988. Her simple gesture has grown into a national program.
