The ‘Decorated Door’ contest is over. Here are your winners.

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Packages, hearts, colored lights, a construction paper turkey, front doors, office doors and a barn door. Festive decorations graced many doors in the community this year as part of Chatham Literacy’s Holiday Decorated Door Event.

Submissions for the residential doors ranged from garland-festooned, patriotic and elegantly lit doors. The best business doors included bright foiled-lined doors and a large green heart door.

While all submissions were very creative and appreciated by the judges, this year’s Chatham Literacy Holiday Decorated Door Event winners are:

• The Best Residential Door: Pittsboro resident Saundra Gardner. Gardner’s door included a Santa Claus, packages, flowers and an abundance of elegant decorations.

• The Best Business Door: Chatham nonprofit The Abundance Foundation. Tami Schwerin, executive director, shared the love by displaying a large heart made from keys and a red bow on their already green office door.

These festive winning doors were part Chatham Literacy’s November challenge to the community to launch some holiday fun in what has been a challenging year. Any holiday decorated door counted as long as the holiday occurred in November or December — from Thanksgiving to Christmas and other special celebrations like Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and New Year’s Day.

For $20 per door submission, participants in this event were asked to decorate their front doors, office doors and assisted living community doors, among others. They were also urged to decorate doors for isolated grandparents or friends.

“The submissions were inspiring, amazing and so appreciated,” said Vicki Newell, Chatham Literacy’s executive director. “Best of all, we have a new community tradition that we hope will grow each year!”

After canceling the organization’s annual author’s luncheon, organizers decided to think outside the box and not only hold a more creative fundraiser, but also try to get the community more involved in the holiday spirit.

“Literacy opens doors of opportunity and since people couldn’t literally open their doors this year due to COVID-19, we thought the community would have fun decorating doors for family and friends,” Newell said.

The Chatham News + Record jumped on board as a sponsor of this creative event.

“We love the work Vicki and her team do, and we all know how nonprofits have suffered during the pandemic,” News + Record Publisher and Editor Bill Horner III said. “And what a great idea to bright some light and color to the holidays.”

Also sponsoring the event was Chatham Homes Realty.

“The Decorated Door event put on by Chatham Literacy was a great way for our county to participate and be social, without having to be too close during this time of COVID,” said Chatham Homes Realty’s Julie Boone Cummins. “The idea was to have us all feel connected to our community and our neighbors, even if we couldn’t get out and see each other up close and personal these days. I think the event was a great success for its first year, and I can’t wait to see the creative doors to come in 2021!”

Along with bragging rights, the best Holiday Decorated Door winners received a $50 gift card to the local restaurant of their choice. Pictures of all decorated door submissions can be found on the Facebook page of the Chatham News + Record and on the home page of Chatham Literacy’s website.

“Chatham Literacy plans to hold a Holiday Decorated Door Event again in 2021 as well as a series of other small events to help generate revenue,” Newell said, “Individual donations and grants to Chatham Literacy were adversely affected in 2020 due to COVID-19. Despite these circumstances, I am proud to report that Chatham Literacy transitioned 79% (145) of our adult learners from in-person tutoring to tutoring via virtual platform or digital learning app.”

Chatham Literacy helps adult, living and working in Chatham County acquire the literacy and educational skills they need to function successfully in society.

Find out more about Chatham Literacy’s work in the community, volunteer opportunities and upcoming fundraisers at www.chathamliteracy.org.