On Saturday, December 28th, Bentleyville powered down for the last time for 2024, and now the cleanup has begun.

One Bentleyville employee, Nora Thaler, says she decided to join the team for the first time because of her fond memories of experiencing the Tour of Lights.

“I’ve been coming to Bentleyville since I was a kid. It’s kind of a staple of Duluth, so when I got the opportunity, I thought it would be awesome,” said Thaler.

Bentleyville holds a special place in Nora’s heart, not just for its bright Christmas lights, but the charity efforts that go on behind the scenes.

“It’s a free organization that Nathan (Bentley) does just to kind of bring some more joy into Duluth. And I think that’s really special. There’s not a whole lot of people out there who would do something like that,” said Thaler.

With many hands make light work and make Bentleyville’s yearly teardown a breeze.

“It’s going pretty well, really busy, but running pretty smooth so far. We’ve got a lot of stuff taken down already,” said Thaler.

And with over fifty workers and volunteers coming together to help put away the Tour of Lights once more, the work will be done in no time.

“It’s awesome, honestly watching the community effort to take everything down and even to put it up when we were doing that, it was fantastic,” said Thaler.

To volunteer to help Bentleyville tear down, click here.