MANDEVILLE, La (WGNO) — Aquarius Pools in Mandeville is in the business of keeping people cool in the summer. But from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, the company’s office space along Lafitte Street is transformed into a snowy, winter wonderland.
For 10 years now, Aquarius has allowed the Northlake Mandeville Rotary Club to take over much of its office space that runs along a stretch of large windows. That’s where the club sets up its Snow Village and Winter Wonderland train display.
“It takes three or four weeks to assemble what you see, and it takes three or four days to take it down when we’re finished,” Rotary Club member Tom Quinn tells WGNO News.
The display runs nightly from 5:30 to 10:30 beginning at Thanksgiving and continuing until New Year’s night. It attracts people of all ages, bringing smiles to their faces and sending fingers pointing at all of the intricacies.
The display includes multiple trains of varying sizes, using different tracks. It also has a drive-in theater with a movie showing, gondolas and other features which can date back 40 years or more.
Keeping the trains and other features running requires stack of boxes filled with every conceivable supply to make speedy repairs.
“It’s a well kept secret unfortunately in Mandeville,” Quinn said. “If you live anywhere on the north shore, it’s worth a trip to come down here and see our train display.”
The Mandeville Rotary Club uses a GoFundMe page to cover the costs of operating and maintaining the display each year. Extra money is donated to any of the dozen charities the group helps support. Click here if you’d like to donate to the train exhibit.
If you’d like to see the display in person, just head to Lafitte Street by the Mandeville Trailhead. You can also get a good look at it by watching our story at the top of this page.