I first met Joe Petrowski when he was still a Guilford High School underclassman, to interview him for a Person of the Week column featuring Joe and his amazing ability to create holiday light shows - complete with synchronized music broadcast to car radios -- outside his parents Valley Shores Drive home. Joe sets these shows up each year and collects any offered donations from viewers, giving 100 percent to charities. With some generous donations through the years, to date, Joe's collected $50,000 to give away to national and local groups including Make-A-Wish Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Guilford Food Bank and Guilford Animal Shelter, to name a few.

Joe's a senior in Design Technology at Emerson College now, but he never fails to return home from Boston in time to dress up the front yard with a dazzling holiday display to benefit a charity. This year, Joe tells me he's created a show using about 55,000 lights and he's collecting donations once again for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. A few years ago, with the help of a generous $10,000 donation from a properly impressed patron, Joe's display raised $14,000 for St. Jude's -- that story made the news in the Courier, too!

To see the show Joe's created this year, take a night-time drive (weather permitting; see hours below) by the Petrowski family home at 163 Valley Shores Drive. To fully appreciate the light show, which is synchronized to more than eight songs, be sure to tune in to 107.3 FM when you arrive. Hours are Sunday-Thursday 5:30pm-9:30pm and Friday and Saturday 5:30pm-11:00pm; now through Jan. 2, 2012.

100% of any monetary donations collected will be donated to St. Jude's Children's Hospital
Be sure to like 'Joe's Amazing Lights' on Facebook!