Employees at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) have been hard at work stringing lights and hanging bows for ERDC’s annual holiday lights celebration.

The public event is set for Dec. 7-8, from 6 to 8 p.m., with a separate employee-only night scheduled for Dec. 6.

Visitors should enter through Gate 3, just south of the Main Gate at 3909 Halls Ferry Road.

Now in its seventh year, the holiday lights drive-thru event is a way for the organization to give back to the community.

There is no cost of admission; however, staff will be on-site collecting non-perishable food items and toys for donations to the local food pantry and Good Shepherd Community Center.

“ERDC Under Lights is so much more than Christmas lights and decorations,” said Sara Robinson, chief of the ERDC’s Protocol, Visitors and Events Office. “This event is our unique opportunity to work with our local community to stock the food pantry. In the past few years, we have collected thousands of pounds of food and toys for those in need.”

After entering the station and dropping off any donations, visitors will drive through the 700-acre campus, past lights and decorations hung by volunteers of the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, Headquarters Building, Environmental Laboratory, Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory and Information Technology Laboratory, as well as many other ERDC support offices.

At the end of the display, traffic will exit onto the 1200 block of Porters Chapel Road.