Community Corner
Charitable Family Hopes to Give Ultimate Gift: $100K for Dearborn Schools
The Wilsons' home is a finalist in Patch's Deck the House contest. Your votes could help them—and Dearborn Public Schools—win big.
The Wilson family's house deserves to win Patch's Deck the House contest—and it's not just because they have a great holiday display.
What you can't see when you look at the twinkling display of more than 7,000 LED lights surrounding their home at 2010 Woodside Drive is the love they have for Dearborn Public Schools, and their community.
Ashley Wilson is a student at Edsel Ford High School—her dad Bob's alma mater.
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"I'm a cake-eater," jokes Dearborn High alum Kim, Bob's wife, who works at Snow Elementary School.
Help the Wilsons win $100,000 for Dearborn Public Schools: Vote for their home once a day through 12 p.m. Dec. 28 in our Deck the House Contest.
Find out what's happening in Dearbornwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
As lifelong Dearborn residents with a daughter still in school, they understandably want to win the national contest, which will net the school district of the winning home $100,000 from Patch.
"They really need the money," Kim says.
"It's just another way we can help out the community," Bob adds.
The hefty check the Wilsons would hand over is on top of their current community service: The whole family volunteers with the Dearborn Goodfellows, and Bob belongs to the Dearborn Masons. Ashley has been volunteering with the Dearborn Animal Shelter since she was 13.
The Wilsons got a little gift of their own as a finalist in the Deck the House contest: Patch is footing their December electricity bill. But not surprisingly, Bob and Kim said they're using the extra cash to buy Christmas presents for a local family.
"I always thought that if I put up a big enough display to attract attention, I would collect donations," he says. "We've always been trying to help the community."
It helps, too, that Bob is really into lights displays—a hobby he started after being inspired by the Wayne County Light Fest.
"I though, 'I want to build something like this,'" he explains, adding that he has set his light displays to music for five or six years now. "I've been planning this year's display since this time last year."
He's happy to show off his hard work—which has won the Wilsons a Dearborn Aglow award three times—and invites everyone to come see their home on Woodside Drive.
"I just want people to drive by and say, 'Oh, that's really cool.'"
