Dazzling Wigginton residents raise £45,000 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance, York’s St Leonard’s Hospice and SNAPPY (From York Press)

Dazzling Wigginton residents raise £45,000 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance, York’s St Leonard’s Hospice and SNAPPY

10:39am Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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A TWINKLING wonderland created year after year in a York street has pulled in the pounds for charity once again.

It is the eighth year residents in Twin Pike Way, Wigginton, have adorned their homes and gardens with a dazzling light display over the Christmas period.

Visitors who stop to take a look at the lights are asked to make a donation into a collection box at the end of the street, which is known as Twinkle Pike Way during its blaze of festive glory.

This week they handed over £4,860, to be split between Yorkshire Air Ambulance, York’s St Leonard’s Hospice and SNAPPY – a charity in York offering play activities for children with special needs.

Since the residents first lit up their street in 2001, they have raised more than £45,000.

Chris Archer, one of the residents, said: “It was our electrician, Howard Ringrose, who first started it off. “He put up a light display one year, and then we all got a bit competitive and it went from there.

“Howard is the one that shimmies up the ladders when nobody else can. He’s fantastic.”

She said the annual tradition created a sense of community, as the neighbours helped each other to put on the best display possible.

“It was a bit tricky this year because both my hands were in plaster, my partner had had a hip replacement operation and the chap across the road had both knees replaced, but everybody chipped in to help,” she said.

“We’re all in our 60s now and heading for our 70s, but we’re going to keep doing it as long as is possible.”

She said they had collected less money than usual this year, partly due to the credit crunch and partly due to the poor weather conditions.

“The weather was atrocious practically every day, so we just didn’t have the amount of people coming that we normally have,” she said.

Twin Pike Way also provided the backdrop for a charity music video, which was filmed last September to raise extra cash for SNAPPY.

Chris said: “We had to put the lights up really early for the filming, but then we turned them off again until December.”