Ask anyone in central Indiana what they know about the IBEW, and their answer will likely have something to do with the holiday season.

"People are always saying things like 'You're the ones who light up Christmas,'" said Kevin Marshall, a business representative for Indianapolis Local 481. "It's nice to be part of such a joyous occasion."

For 47 years, volunteers from the local have been stringing the lights on what's known throughout the Midwest as the "world's largest Christmas tree." At 284 feet tall—just 15 inches shorter than the Statue of Liberty—the tree of lights in downtown Indy has 52 strands and a mind-boggling 4,784 bulbs. Five colors of light represent the branches of the U.S. military.

"It really kicks off the season here," said Marshall, who has coordinated the effort for the last five years. His grandfather was among the first volunteers to string the lights back in 1962.

More than 200 IBEW members helped build this year's tree, gathering at the city's Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Nov. 14. At the base of the massive statue, volunteers fed strands of 11-watt bulbs out of 55-gallon barrels, stretching them into the street as they were pulled skyward. Eight volunteers perched high atop the monument carefully pulled two strands at a time through tiny windows in the top-floor observatory and clipped each of them to a built-in anchor. "The first time you work the top can be a little intimidating. You're 300 feet in the air and you can't let those lights slip," Marshall said.

The tree lighting, each Thanksgiving weekend, is the biggest seasonal event in Indianapolis. It attracts more than 100,000 holiday revelers, with hundreds of thousands more watching on TV.