Sandra Lloyd says it’s “a bit of a ghost town” in the area around the front of her California Avenue home when students aren’t around.

So she was extremely happy when Rosemary Briscoe showed up on her front porch Friday morning with an early Christmas gift of some new LED light bulbs to help illuminate the area.

“I think it’s a fantastic idea, and not just for the students, but for everyone around here,” said Lloyd, who lives with her husband Bill – and their cat Jake – in the block between Wyandotte and University streets.

Briscoe, a community liaison officer with campus police services, said the idea to hand out light bulbs originally came from Sandra Davis, a residence life manager in residence services, who noticed earlier this fall that it was especially dark at night along that stretch of road.

Special constable Briscoe got in touch with EnWin Utlities, who happily donated 25 6.9-watt LED globe bulbs. She wrapped them up in colourful gifts bags, wrote an accompanying letter to the area’s residents, and then went door-to-door on Friday morning to hand them out.

She encouraged residents to keep the high efficiency, low-cost bulbs on throughout the night to make it safer for students coming to and from campus.