Festival of Trees more than tinsel
The 2006 Festival of Trees at the Coeur d’Alene Resort packs a season full of holiday cheer into four short days.
By Monday, the Kootenai Medical Center Foundation will have hosted a half-dozen events inside the decorated ballroom, including a dinner-auction and two fashion shows. By Tuesday, when 35 trees are delivered to their new owners, a thousand people will have donated, decorated and otherwise pitched in to raise money for a cancer treatment center in Post Falls.
The foundation hopes the festival, which is in its 18th year and benefits Kootenai Medical Center, will raise $350,000.
“For as much planning as we do, it goes really fast,” said Diane Murray, special events coordinator for the festival.
Murray was at the resort’s ballroom on Saturday to help with a senior breakfast, which was sponsored by North Idaho Eye Institute and attracted nearly 500 people. The seniors were pampered by 50 off-duty eye institute employees, including Karen Sines, who helped organize the breakfast. Guests enjoyed performances featuring nostalgic music under a backdrop of illuminated trees.
This year’s trees meld creativity with generosity, featuring themes titled A Seashore Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Home for the Holidays, the Magic of Santa’s Workshop and Coca-Cola Bears with Penguin Friends.
“It’s amazing what they’ve come up with. Some people work on them year-round,” Murray said.
A LoneStar bear tree with stuffed bears – some collectible – and books, is up for raffle. Tickets sell for $2 each. Seven more trees will be sold for $1,000 to $2,500.
The remaining trees were scheduled for auction Saturday night, including a creation donated by Century 21 Beutler & Associates that came with V.I.P. tickets to a Gonzaga University basketball game versus St. Mary’s University, two rooms at The Davenport Hotel and dinner at Spencer’s.
Super 1 Foods gave a cheerfully adorned tree surrounded by enough gifts for a family of 10 – a bicycle, cookware and a flat screen television were among the presents.
Although Murray couldn’t estimate how much the auction would raise, she said two years ago a tree with a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer theme (and a mammoth handmade abominable snowman) topped out at $12,000.
Teri Farr, executive director of KMC Foundation, said the festival gains momentum each year.
“It has grown every single year both in numbers of people involved and the dollar amount that’s raised to benefit the center,” Farr said.
For those walking through the displays on Saturday morning, the trees were a feast for the eyes.
“I love this Charlie Brown tree,” said Trudy Chisholm, a Kootenai Medical Center auxiliary volunteer attending the event with her neighbor, Herta Long.
Groups of Red Hat ladies were scattered throughout the audience, and several senior centers brought residents – some in wheelchairs and walkers – to enjoy the Christmas festivities.
Chisholm applauded the festival saying, “They’ve done some wonderful things with the money they’ve raised from these.”