Northborough Annual Tree Lighting to Look, Sound Brighter

The Northborough Annual Tree Lighting will look -- and sound -- brighter this Saturday night.

The Northborough Community Affairs Committee has "hired a professional sounds and light company to make the area around the tree brighter and safer for participants and to help project the sounds of the singers and presenters," Chairman Lisa Hodge said in an e-mail interview.

The committee also has hired Westborough's 100th Town Chorus to perform. and to lead the crowd in carols, Hodge said.

The tree lighting starts at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Blake Street at Route 20.

About 100 to 150 people are expected to attend, Hodge said.

Songs from the chorus will greet the crowd, she said.

Selectman Jeff Amberson will then discuss Neil Ellsworth. Northborough began the tree lighting in 1968 in memory of Ellsworth, "an Army private first class, who was killed in Vietnam in 1967 at the age of 19," the committee said in a press release.

Hodge said Ellsworth's family will attend Saturday's event, as will a color guard.

Representatives of United Bank, the event's main sponsor, will, with committee members, distribute bells, chorus books, cookies and hot cocoa, she said. And the Northboro House of Pizza will sell pizza, donating part of the sales to a local charity, she said.

"I think what people will enjoy about the tree lighting is it is a great way to kick off the holiday season with friends and family," Hodge said.