Letting In Some Light

He warms the holidays for families too filled with grief to celebrate on their own.

- Juliana Labianca

AFTER STEWART and Debbie Wilder lost their 17-year-old son, Cameron, to suicide in 2013, the last thing on their minds was decorating for the holiday season. “We haven’t put anything up in three years. It has all stayed boxed up,” Debbie told KTVB in November 2016. “All of Cameron’s friends come home for Thanksgiving to visit their families, and we don’t have him.”

But in December 2016, the house was lit up like, well, Christmas, with strings of white bulbs cheerfully lining the roof and eaves. It wasn’t the Wilders who’d finally made the house twinkle, however. Instead it was a stranger, 30-year-old Carson Zickgraf, who hangs lights professionally through his business, CZ Enterprises LLC. The Treasure Valley, Idaho, man is on a mission to brighten the lives of families affected by suicide, especially during the difficult holiday season—and it works. “I started crying,” Debbie says about seeing the lights for the first time. “It was really special.”