Times Square's ball drop has been a New Year's Eve tradition for more than a century. As residents throughout the Hudson Valley get ready to ring in 2025, they will get the chance to see a piece of Orange County be represented in this year’s iconic tradition.

"Every piece of glass will be replaced on the ball," said Lewis Still, the bulk shop manager and a designer at Gillinder Glass in Port Jervis.

Still is just one of the team members at Gillinder Glass that worked to replace all 2,688 crystal triangles of the ball. This is the first time in 10 years the iconic symbol will get a complete makeover.

After more than 160 years of making custom glass lenses for places like airport runways, it was not only a stark switch in projects for the team at Gillinder Glass, but also a plan that wasn’t even originally in the cards for them this year.

The plan was to work with Jamestown to do the ball for next year," Still explained. "We had had some conversations with them about maybe remodeling the ball for the ‘26 ball drop...and when they came to visit, they asked if we would be interested in doing this year's ball.

From there, the team went straight to work, perfecting each triangle to ensure the ball shines brightly on top of One Times Square this New Year.

" I believe we did this in just around two months,' said Still. "It took a lot of work from a lot of people to make this happen."

During those two months, the team came up with designs that were all tied to the One Times Square project. One of them includes the letter "E" at the top of the triangle.

"E [is] for 'ever,' which is part of the venue they're making at the One Times Square building," explained Eric Camacho, the quality manager at Gillinder Glass. "We [also] have their logo with the ball dropping down. You can see light coming out of it. So, a lot of the designs all ha[ve] meaning."

With the 2025 New Year's Eve ball drop finally here, the team at Gillinder Glass says they are forever grateful to be part of the nationwide tradition.

" I think about this [project] and I just keep coming back to pride," said Still. "Very, very proud [and] honored."

"I'm not just proud of the product itself," explained Camacho. "The product is amazing. It is the most interesting and exciting thing I've worked on, but to [also] see our team come together…you see it on their faces that they're very happy and proud that we were part of this."

Gillinder Glass is located at 51 Erie St. in Port Jervis.

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