Dad's spooktacular £4,000 lights fest (From Daily Echo)
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Southampton dad's spooktacular £4,000 lights fest
10:41am Wednesday 31st October 2012 in Leisure By Ed Stilliard, Senior Reporter
Daniel Buckingham and his niece Libby.
WHEN engineer Daniel Buckingham wanted to turn his home into Southampton’s most haunted house he decided to do it in spectacular style – by putting it up in lights.
As darkness falls tonight Daniel’s home will light up the night sky with an array of lights of a ghoulish kind.
After spending nearly £4,000 the father-of-two will be putting on a spectacular show – all in aid of Cedar School in Lordshill, which his sixyear- old niece attends.
The 36-year-old’s creepy creation will be on display outside his home in Margam Avenue, Sholing, with Hallowe’en-themed songs to accompany the free show.
A variety of colours and shapes such as pumpkin faces, ghosts and other frightful fiends will shine for an hour from 7pm with a firework show afterwards.
Daniel said he has been spending the last three days putting up more than 7,000 lights to decorate the front of his house in aid of his niece Libby, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
That includes 2,100 triple-coloured lights known as RGBs, 2,000 LED lights, 100 metres of rope lights, which is the equivalent of 3,000 bulbs, 10 spot lights and three strobe lights.
And despite his crazy plans the marine engineer, who works for Sealine, has had the support of his family – wife Carolyn and teenage daughters Bobby and Amy – and his neighbours, too.
Daniel said: “My wife’s supported me all the way. She thought it was a mad idea at first but once I started working on it she was right behind me. The neighbours on either side have helped me with advice about how to put them up and even helped me.”
He hopes to be able to use the evening to showcase the technology for future fundraising events.
Friends and family of Libby and her mother Zoe will be going around collecting cash in buckets and informing people about the cause.
“We have raised money in the past for a wheelchair for Libby but now we are doing it for the school she goes to,”
he said.
Neighbour Sophie O’Donnell, a mum of two, said: “It’s brilliant. It’s all great fun and it’s for charity.”
Grant Baker, 29, was driving past and decided he had to pull over to get a better look.
The marine engineer, from Chapel Road, West End, said: “I have never seen anything like this before in my life. It’s incredible.”
Comments(23)
bazzeroz
says...
11:49am Wed 31 Oct 12
spaners
says...
12:11pm Wed 31 Oct 12
NDTman
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12:31pm Wed 31 Oct 12
Lockssmart wrote:Ex wife now lol
Save £4000. Stick the wife in the front garden.
SaintM
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1:07pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM
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1:07pm Wed 31 Oct 12
Sherlock.
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1:24pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM wrote:Don't be so miserable it's one night only and doing if for charity, then again he could be wasting his life and putting people down on a forum.
total idiot, get a life and think of your neighbours
Hdg end mo
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1:35pm Wed 31 Oct 12
Georgem
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1:42pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM wrote:The neighbours who are supportive of what he's doing, you mean? Or did you skip the bit about reading the story, and go straight to putting someone else down to feel better about yourself?
total idiot, get a life and think of your neighbours
Huffter
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2:01pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM wrote:He's thinking of Cedar School.
total idiot, get a life and think of your neighbours
Begs the question "Who is my neighbour?"
elvisimo
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2:27pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM wrote:raising money for charity pah! what a loser , think how many episodes of Jeremy Kyle he would have missed or cans of value lager he could have drunk. He really should get a life!!
total idiot, get a life and think of your neighbours
George4th
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4:07pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM
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4:08pm Wed 31 Oct 12
Buntylicious
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4:14pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM wrote:Mock all you like you moron, this guy has raised an awful lot of money for a very worthwhile charity and a beautiful little girl. I shall be attending this evening, along with a lot of other appreciative people. And by the way, your football team are rubbish.
the money will never go to charity , there will be complaints from the neighbours and you lot don,t have a clue
IronLady2010
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9:06pm Wed 31 Oct 12
I only hope he raises more than the £4K it cost to pull this off.
Good luck x
Saint n
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9:08pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM wrote:I am one of his neighbours and think its a great thing to do for a great cause you complete bell end
the money will never go to charity , there will be complaints from the neighbours and you lot don,t have a clue
Georgem
says...
10:32pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM wrote:So speaks the voice of the armchair. It might surprise you to know that the entire country isn't actually populated by SaintM clones who wear cynicism as a fashion accessory and an excuse not to put any thought into anything.
the money will never go to charity , there will be complaints from the neighbours and you lot don,t have a clue
SolentNick
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10:40pm Wed 31 Oct 12
SaintM wrote:Obviously this "saintm" is a cu*t! With no life, just watching football.
total idiot, get a life and think of your neighbours
I have seen where the money is going - all of it!!
sarastarlites
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11:08pm Wed 31 Oct 12
#iwishmyneighboursdi
dthis/cool*
bobbeale53
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4:41am Thu 1 Nov 12
Here in California organizations have been putting so much effort into decorating homes and businesses for this one night and the results are amazing.
A safe venue for youngsters of all ages to go and enjoy themselves, dress up and in some cases even get scared silly, all in aid of a worthy cause is great.
My neighbours high school kid and ten of his friends spent four days putting together a maze that included lights, smoke, horror figures and then all of them dressing up and acting in various horror movie scenes was unbelievable. I can't believe how many people went through it. I t was almost like they were coming in by the bus load.
Stop knocking people who go out of their way to promote and raise funds for a cause. It's not hurting you and at the end of the day it's their time and money that goes into it. Hopefully it was well supported.
dextor13
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1:54pm Thu 1 Nov 12
SaintM wrote:This guy has been raising money for charity and Libby for several years now i have attended many of his events and there all fantastic. The world needs more people like Daniel. And he has many more plans for the equipment that he has purchased and will be used for many more years to raise more money and will make a lot more than 4k and most of his neighbours got involved and supported it 100%
the money will never go to charity , there will be complaints from the neighbours and you lot don,t have a clue
so i suggest keeping your negative comments to your on-line virtual friends
follow his videos on you tube
http://www.youtube.c
om/user/dan75buck?fe
ature=mhee
dextor13
says...
1:55pm Thu 1 Nov 12
SaintM wrote:This guy has been raising money for charity and Libby for several years now i have attended many of his events and there all fantastic. The world needs more people like Daniel. And he has many more plans for the equipment that he has purchased and will be used for many more years to raise more money and will make a lot more than 4k and most of his neighbours got involved and supported it 100%
the money will never go to charity , there will be complaints from the neighbours and you lot don,t have a clue
so i suggest keeping your negative comments to your on-line virtual friends billy no mates
follow his videos on you tube
http://www.youtube.c
om/user/dan75buck?fe
ature=mhee
andysaints007
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10:50am Sat 3 Nov 12
Hdg end mo wrote:And your point is what exactly?
And this news comes on the back of electricity prices going through the roof again
Lockssmart says...
11:00am Wed 31 Oct 12