Neighbors help sick man keep holiday tradition alive
Tony Lasky couldn’t put up his lights, so the community did it.
LAKE WORTH — Holiday traditions start for many reasons.
The one for Tony and Dawn Lasky with all the Christmas lights and decorations adorning their home began 15 years ago when their son was born.
Ryan was au t i s t i c a nd had trouble focusing. To help, Tony decided to transform the outside of their single-family, corner lot home in the Lake Osborne Terrace subdivision into a colorful Santa’s c astle by stringing up more than 2,000 lights.
“We thought Ryan would like to see something like that,” says Tony, who put up all the lights and displays himself.
The Laskys haven’t missed a year since. In fact, the display continues to grow each year, wowing neighbors and those who drive by to see it. This year, an estimated 35,000 Christmas lights have been hung on and around the 59-year-old house Tony and Dawn, married for 22 years, have called home since 2000.
You wouldn’t know it, but something’s different about the Yuletide display this year.
Yes, more than 20 candy canes line the long, circular driveway. Snoopy sits on top of his mailbox, no doubt eagerly awaiting his airfield battle with The Red Baron. And there are several blinking hoops and blowups ranging from Cinderella’s castle to a Charlie Brown display that turn Lake Osborne Drive into Rockefeller Center South, just like it always does.
The difference is this: Tony did not string up one light. Or pick up a single blowup decoration.
Something he always did. Alone. Proudly.
It usually took him two weeks, tirelessly working nights and weekends.
“I’m a hands-on person,” says Tony, who has been in the construction business since 1984. “I used to run jobs and if things weren’t going well, I’d fire peo-