Carrollton Presbyterian Church installs LED sign

By Editor | December 7, 2022 |

The Carrollton Presbyterian Church’s new LED sign advertises their Christmas Eve service at 7 p.m. The sign also advertises other local events in the community, in addition to church events and regular church services. It is operated through a computer. It is the first church LED sign in Carrollton. (Carmen Ensinger/Greene Prairie Press)

By Carmen Ensinger

The Carrollton Presbyterian Church has the distinction of becoming the first church in Carrollton to install an LED sign at their church, located on Sixth St. right next to Dollar General.
“The one we had was the old billboard type where you opened up the glass and changed the message each week,” church member Gayle Stumpf said. “It was falling apart and we had already repaired it several times.”
However, it wasn’t a rash decision to make such an expensive upgrade.
“When we originally started thinking about replacing the old sign with an LED sign, I think Kroger was still there,” Stumpf said. “So, we started talking about the project over two years ago.”
So, what took them so long to finally get it done.
“Well, for one thing just getting on the ball and doing it,” Stumpf said. “Then, coming up with the funds. Finally, we felt comfortable with what we had and jumped on it and finally did it.”
Stumpf said a lot of the funding came through memorials, including a memorial given by her mother in memory of her father.
Once the funding was in place, all that was left was finding someone to head up the project. That person was Greg Olmstead.
“Greg kind of took charge of this project,” Stumpf said. “He got in touch with the company and did a lot of the leg work.”
The company they chose was Arrow Signs, Inc. in Godfrey, who offered a wide variety of signage to choose from.
“We didn’t want anything too overpowering, but we wanted it big enough so people could see it,” Stumpf said. “We ended up getting a sign that is 36 inches by 36 inches that ended up costing us around $29,000.”
The sign was ordered back in the early spring, but due to delays in getting materials, it wasn’t installed until the second week in November.
The sign will be used to display the times for church services and church events, but will also be used to display events going on in the community.
“We are going to try to use Bernie Faul’s monthly calendar that she has been using on Facebook,” Stumpf said. “We are just going to try to keep people aware of the things that are going on in our community.”
But the sign isn’t the only thing new around the church. The church has purchased one of those small sharing or lending library units, which will be placed outside the church.
“Shirley Schacher donated a bunch of books and we already had a library so we wanted to make some of our books available to everyone and this will be something new,” Stumpf said. “I know they have these in several places around town for the kids, including Alfonso’s, where kids can go borrow a book, but we thought we could do the same thing on the religious side and have religious books for both adults and kids in ours.”
Stumpf said credit goes to Duane Young for putting the sharing library together.
“Of course, they never come in one piece – you always have to put them together,” she said. “We are certainly glad that he stepped up and volunteered to put it together for us.”
Stumpf also wants to remind everyone of the special Christmas Eve service at 7 p.m. and invites everyone to attend.