Secret.

The word is powerful – powerful enough to bring hundreds of people together in the freezing cold Friday night.

“I know the secret,” said a wide-eyed girl. Her siblings looked up. Could she share the secret?

Her mother, parka zipped up to her chin and hat pulled down over her ears, held her daughter tightly as adults and children pressed closer to hear what she had to say.

“It’s the reindeer,” the girl said excitedly. ”They’re going to come down.” No one questioned her, although it seemed impossible the deer could make a safe landing in the middle of West Shore Road. The road at the center of Conimicut Village was packed, not with cars but with people. Among them was a flame dancer, a man creating giant bubbles, a strolling violinist, a face painter, a balloon twister, Santa, the Grinch and 41 people wearing red hats. The red hats knew the secret, but they weren’t telling.

It was what Colleen Collins dreamed of when she approached Leslie Derrig, president of the Conimicut Village Association months ago.

Collins owns Tranquil Touch in the village center, which she started two years ago. She and her family live in Gaspee, but she’s always had a vision of what the village could be.

Derrig lives near Conimicut Point. The gulls sweep over the beach not far from her three-story house, built to withstand the surge of hurricanes.

Derrig is a listener and a doer.

“[I] don’t want to say no to any good idea as long as they chair it,” she said in an interview.

At a village association meeting, Derrig said, Collins had a wonderful idea that would dramatically change the annual Christmas tree lighting set for Dec. 6. There was a condition, however: whoever signed up to work on the event had to keep “the surprise” a secret or it wouldn’t be a surprise. They were asked to sign NDAs [non-disclosure agreements].

She was greeted with a level of suspicion. What if it flopped? Could they get blamed, maybe even sued? Why, as members of the association, couldn’t they be told the “secret” but not work on the project? Couldn’t they be trusted? Did they really have to sign an NDA?

Derrig and Collins drew the line. They weren’t telling. Of course, they had to tell the mayor, for without the city’s cooperation, “it” wasn’t going to work. Initially, Derrig found Frank Picozzi receptive to listening but cautious over the commitment of resources to detour traffic around the village center. There was more to it than that. They would need lighting and help taking everything down after the big reveal.

The mayor had made a huge commitment to the Apponaug winter fest that would begin with a parade less than 24 hours later. That event was largely funded by a state grant, but there were no similar grants available for a Conimicut event.

The association had received legislative grants during the year and they had their own resources from dues, donations and fundraisers. Derrig estimates $4,000 was spent on the secret from port-a-johns to performers and poppers.

At first Collins and Derrig thought they could hire professionals to pull off the secret. The best they came up with was $1,500 for two people, which wouldn’t have worked, to more than a dozen at $25,000.  They would need to recruit fellow believers who could keep the secret.

“She’s a shop-a-holic,” Derrig said of Collins, who found the best deals on all the supplies. There was more to it than shopping. The 41 volunteers needed to rehearse. Father Robert Marciano came to their assistance, providing space at the St. Kevin Church parking lot. Woodbury Union Church also provided space. Then there were other outdoor spaces but they needed to be careful.

Collins and Derrig were the sparkplugs.

Their event was separated from the lighting of the village tree, and Santa’s arrival that was overseen by Barbara Canton.

Derrig managed the logistics from permits to contracts for vendors and entertainers. Collins took over the decorations and bought all the freebies handed out to the kids. When it came to the cleanup that extended into Saturday, association members pitched in, but Collins said it wouldn’t have happened without the help of family and friends who go along with her ideas.

“I was so happy. There was a little bit of something for everyone,” Collins said Saturday.

And the secret that created so much buzz?.

It was a flash mob, the 41 volunteers from church choirs and singing groups, 41 red hats.

It started with one singer singing Hallelujah, others joined in and soon all came together to sing carols and Christmas songs. They shook bells to Jingle Bells. And then came the poppers that sent glimmering sparkles that reflected the Christmas lights in the dark cold sky.

Incidentally, Collins thought of reindeer, but the closest deer she could find were down south … not north of us as you might have thought.