Lights of Love — the appropriate name for a program that promotes love, wellness and community spirit.

Started 27 years ago when Vidant Beaufort Hospital was Beaufort County Hospital, Lights of Love is now a Beaufort County tradition. So much of a tradition that WITN-TV ends its 6 p.m. newscast on the night of the annual Lights of Love ceremony with the lighting of the Lights of Love tree on the hospital’s front lawn.

Lights of Love

The lights on the tree symbolize those who have been honored or memorialized over the years.

A minimum, tax-deductible donation of $5 allows someone to honor or remember a special person in his or her life with a light that shines with the many other lights on the Lights of Love tree.

Lights of Love is more than just a one-night event centered on the lighting of the Lights of Love tree. It’s a community effort that involves several entities.

Vidant Beaufort Hospital President Harvey Case explains it well.

“Lights of Love just isn’t something that happens one day a year. It happens all year long. We appreciate folks who give back to the hospital so we can do special things for the folks in the community. The donations for Lights of Love are used to promote health-care education, improve community wellness, support and enhance patient care and provide amenities that make our hospital more comfortable for patients and their families.”

Just what do donations to Lights of Love accomplish?

In 2011, the hospital’s women’s services department received rocker-gliders paid for with donations to Lights of Love and a special donation from Eastern Radiologists. The rocker gliders are for patient rooms where new parents and their babies stay after delivery. The gentle motion of rocking a new baby has proven to be soothing for both the parent and the infant, according to the hospital.

Shine on, Lights of Love, shine on.