Raising a child is one of the greatest experiences most people experience in their lifetime. So, when Stacy and Bob Leible lost their son Caleb in 2011 at birth, their grief and shock was understandably enormous. 

The Leibles worked to raise awareness for families like theirs by doing things like selling chocolate in the years that followed. When their daughter began asking for her parents to put up a light display, Bob and Stacy used this request and created an idea that has stuck for the past five years.

“Our daughter really wanted for us to do a light display and it was a great family experience so we thought maybe we could do a light display and raise money for Share at the same time,” Bob said. “Share is a non-profit organization that helps families like us who lost a baby.”

Anyone can come visit the display fittingly named ‘Seen From Above’ at the Leibles’ home at 3036 Willow Bend Drive. It is a free show in which visitors can tune into the radio station 88.5 FM and watch as the lights on the house react to one of the songs that plays. As the entire point of the display is to raise money for Share, their mailbox becomes a designated donation box for the holiday season.

“All profits go to Share, we don’t keep a dime of it,” Stacy said. “We work hand and hand with Share so it’s not like we just drop money off at their buildings after we’re done.”

Understandably many people might be a bit cautious just giving money for an organization they’ve never heard of. Share is completely non-profit so all money donated is going towards helping families who suffered from losing an infant. 

“I mean we’ve had many people raise money for us in many different ways but none have been quite like what Stacy and Bob are doing,” Share worker Sarah Lawrenz said. “It’s really awesome because who doesn’t love looking at light displays during the holiday season.”

Share stresses the fact that losing a child is never the parents fault. Many grieving parents often can find themselves blaming the loss on themselves. All the workers at Share have experienced some sort of loss similar to those they’re helping so they know firsthand how people are feeling.

“This is a really sad job,” Lawrenz said. “We see people often at the lowest point in their life and that’s not easy to see 24/7. But when you know you’re helping someone overcome and get themselves out of such a low point it really is the best feeling in the world.”

Knowing they are helping others makes all the work setting things up each year a little more manageable for the Leibles. From running all the wires to physically putting the display up it can take Bob up to 30-40 hours to have everything where he wants it to be. Programming the songs however is a full year job.

“One song takes between 20-40 hours to program,” Bob said. “You’re telling software to turn on and off every half second of a song and there’s 64 of them that you’re telling to do that so I’m listening to the same song hours on end. I start programming in around late June and I’m very critical of my own work. When that persons sitting in the street watching, they don’t know that light turns on a second too short but I do and I’m sitting inside thinking man, that light’s off by just a split second.”

The Leibles hope to continue doing the display for as long as physically possible. The bringing together of people no matter their background makes the display a prime example of what the holiday season is all about. Family, helping others, love and fun. 

“Looking out the window and seeing all the happy faces in the cars makes our day,” Stacy said. 

“When we have people who are from similar situations like us tell us how much they like our display, words can’t describe that feeling,” Bob said.