Months of preparation, love and care are coming to fruition at the Upperco Volunteer Fire Co.The Yuletide Village opened Friday night with a half-mile-long drive through light display and an indoor train garden, all set up by volunteer firefighters and their families."A lot of painstaking hours. We actually start this the first week in October and go every night," said Scott Warner, with the Upperco Yuletide Village Committee. "We are just now finishing up right now, so it's a lot of man hours, a lot of volunteer time."The train garden is decked with decorated trees and a whole lot of Christmas spirit."It's what we can give back to the community. The community helps us, so we want to give back to the community," Warner said.Warner said the Upperco Volunteer Fire Co. started the effort in 2019, and every year, they change the path and display. It's hard work they're willing to do over and over again just to make people smile."To see the joy on the face of people, me doing the train garden myself, by the time I'm done, all the hours, you were miserable, you are just so tired. And, the first time a child comes in and walks up to that glass and sits there and start staring at it, it all goes away. It's worth all of the effort you put into it," Warner said. "Now that it's up and running, we are already looking at next year."It costs $25 per car, which goes toward helping the Upperco Volunteer Fire Co. better serve the community."Volunteer fire departments around the country, you know, this is how they get their money. They get some subsidies from the county, but most of it is all the money they raise throughout their dinners and fundraisers or anything else," Warner said.The village will be open every weekend through Dec. 30 except for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.The fundraisers the fire company holds helped them build a new $8 million station that they're in the process of moving into."Now, we have a brand-new building, and it's to serve the community better," Warner said. "All that money goes back into our operational funds to keep us with newer equipment."| LINK: Upperco Yuletide Village Light Trail and Train Garden