Each December, as Oakdale’s downtown begins to sparkle with holiday lights, two familiar faces are hard at work adding a special kind of glow. Longtime residents Nancy Podolsky and Sheryl Mack have spent the past 10 years volunteering with the Friends of Community Hospice, carefully inscribing names on ornaments that carry love, memory, and hope.

Each ornament represents someone special — a friend remembered, a loved one honored — and will soon hang on a family’s Christmas tree.

“It’s meaningful work,” Podolsky shared. “Every name tells a story.”

This season, the two expect to inscribe more than 150 ornaments. In addition, donors can dedicate symbolic lights on the Community Hospice’s “Light Up a Life” tree, which will shine brightly in Oakdale on Saturday, Dec. 6, during the city’s Christmas Parade and downtown holiday celebration. The lighting ceremony is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Wood Park.

To have a name included on the event banner and in the printed program, submissions must be received by Monday, Nov. 10. More information — including how to order ornaments or dedicate a symbolic light — is available on the Community Hospice website or by going to: https://fundraise.givesmart.com/e/EvPaNQ?vid=1meyq1

All are encouraged to purchase a light in honor of a loved one and attend the Dec. 6 lighting ceremony.