West Chicago teen launches elaborate holiday light display

People may be staring, but no one who knows Zach Gebis is really surprised.

Gebis, 17, hadn't even officially unveiled his holiday light display this week and drivers already were pulling over to watch test runs of the spectacle at 27W537 Timber Lane, near the intersection of North Avenue and County Farm Road near West Chicago.

The one-minute light show, presented many times an evening beginning around dusk, features thousands of lights and is synchronized to holiday music from Gebis' own FM station. It's sort of a miniature version of the Ohio light display by Carson Williams, made famous on YouTube and in a Bud Light commercial several years ago.

Gebis, a junior at Community High School in West Chicago who takes classes at Technology Center of DuPage in Addison, spent eight hours on the programming alone. But his classmates and teachers don't expect anything less, he says.

"People see it as, 'That's Zach, the computer guy. He'd rather program than go to the mall or a movie,'" Gebis said Wednesday.

The Christmas light display isn't his first stab at harnessing holiday technology. He also created light shows for the Fourth of July and Halloween this year. But this one, he says, is the biggest and best.

Not only does the display require about a mile's worth of extension cords and boost his parents' electric bill by roughly $100 a month, but Gebis also launched 101.3-FM and lightsofillinois.com to complement it.

The radio station lets visitors hear the synced-up music in their own cars, and the Web site gives more details about the display, such as when Santa and Mrs. Claus will visit to take pictures with children on Dec. 12 and 19.

Gebis said all the work is worth it for both his family and the community.

"Not only fun for me, fun for my parents and fun for the electric company," he jokes, "but it's fun for the neighbors. Around Christmas, a lot of people are spending money on gifts and parties, so here they can see something great for free."

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