Portales Altrusa Club brightening community

Those crafty and civic-minded women in the Altrusa Club of Portales have come up with a clever way to brighten our community as well as provide a socially distanced activity for those of us who may be suffering from an ongoing case of cabin fever.

If you have been out and about in Portales, you've likely seen the festive Christmas chairs in front of many local businesses.

How many are there and where all can they be found?

That, said Club President Beverly Bennett, is where the fun comes in.

It's a chair "scavenger hunt," if you will.

From now through midnight on Tuesday, we're invited to drive around Portales and make a list of where all the chairs (and maybe a festooned bicycle or two) are located.

Those lists may be submitted via email to [email protected].

Your entry should include the correct number of chairs and their locations (either street address or identify by business), as well as your name and phone number.

The first three people who submit complete lists will receive typically thoughtful gifts from the Altrusa Club: gift certificates to the local business of their choice. The quickest and most accurate eagle eye will be rewarded a $100 card. There is $30 set aside for second and $20 for third.

But whether or not you nab one of the gift certificates, you're guaranteed an hour or two out of the house, and some "I spy" entertainment for all ages.

Bennett said the decorated chairs idea came about almost by accident.

You may remember the autumn straw bales, scarecrow, and pumpkin creations that appeared in our community in the fall of 2019.

That was Altrusa's way of spiffing up the community prior to the annual College Daze Rodeo hosted by Eastern New Mexico University, Bennett said.

Not long after that, she happened to find four battered old chairs on sale - cheap - and she bought and dressed those up, too, to add a little more color.

This spring, when the service club was forced to curtail its regular activities due to, well, you know, Bennett said they realized that decorating more chairs could be a perfect project.

"Everybody can decorate a chair in their own house," she said.

"We had been gathering chairs off of Facebook, out of garage sales ... people would give me their chairs," Bennett said. "We said let's do something for spring."

The colorful and flowery chairs blossomed all around town to celebrate the community reopening after the first shutdown, Bennett said.

As the pandemic dragged on into the harvest months, the club responded with a fresh round of pumpkins and colored leaves for the growing chair collection.

Then, with an eye on Christmas and knowing that the Altrusa Club's annual Holiday Happening would likely be canceled, Bennett told club members that if they were planning on discarding any holiday décor during their lockdown cleanouts, she wanted it.

"I ended up with a pickup truck load," she said.

A number of additional chairs have been placed around town over the past week in preparation for the contest, Bennett said. She gives full credit to the entire Altrusa Club for stepping up to become involved with painting and decorating.

The Altrusans have also become experts at protecting their creations from the perpetual eastern New Mexico winds, Bennett said, and currently own "every size, shape, and color of zip ties that exist."

Bennett has two tips for those who are competing in the hunt.

All chairs are located in front of businesses or public entities, but "some of those are off the beaten path," she said, and this is a daylight hours activity. Most of the chairs are not illuminated and will be hard to spot after sunset.

Does she have a favorite?

"Maybe the Christmas train in front of the Courthouse Café," Bennett said after a lot of thought. "It's simple, but traditional. But they're all so neat. They've all got their own personalities."

By the way, in case you've wondered as I had, there is no cost to businesses to have a chair.

This is not a fundraiser, Bennett stressed, but rather a way for Altrusa to give back to local businesses and provide some sparkle to their community.

And to us all.

Betty Williamson may or may not know how many chairs there are, but she welcomes bribes. Reach her at:

[email protected]