Media Release
Festival of Trees
December 20th 2013
Battlefords Daily New: Doug Collie
The 19th annual Battlefords Union Hospital Foundation Festival of Trees will be back at the Dekker Centre for a second straight year in 2014.
BUH Foundation Executive Director Claudette McGuire says this year’s effort to hold the fundraiser was such a success they’ve already booked the facility for next year.
The event was held this past Friday night through Sunday.
“We absolutely loved it at the Dekker Centre. (Dekker Centre GM) Moe McGuinty and his crew were over and above in helping us. They were just delightful to work with,” McGuire says.
“It’s just the perfect, beautiful venue for the trees and what we’re doing. It’s a heck of a lot of work, but that’s what this is all about.”
For the last few years, the Festival of Trees has been held at the Gold Ridge Centre.
Organizers were also happy because they obtained several new sponsors this year.
McGuire says it’s too early to say how much money the festival raised this year; bills are still coming in. However, she says they raised at least $32,000 during Saturday night’s gala from the live auction alone.
This year, money raised from the Festival of Trees is going toward purchase of a new digital fluoroscopy unit for the Medical Imaging Department at BUH.
McGuire estimates about 350 people attended the first night of the festival and the official lighting of the big tree in the adjacent
“We didn’t keep a tally,” she says. “It was difficult because people were in and out and a large number of them had received tickets as part of their sponsorship package.
“But certainly I thought it was one of the most touching nights. There were tears in everybody’s eyes. I just loved how that worked,” McGuire adds.
Organizers had hoped to have a skating rink set up in the Dekker Centre adjacent to the big tree. McGuire says BUH Foundation officials plan to work hard with the City over the coming months to make that reality for next year’s Festival of Trees.
“When everything’s new you’re just trying to make it work the first time. Then you can add and tweak,” she says.
McGuire says public viewing of the festival on Saturday went “very, very well.”
“It’s the first time we’ve had public viewing in a while – not because we didn’t want to, it’s just we couldn’t have it in the venue we were in because the tables were being set. You can’t have the public wandering through while staff are trying to set up the banquet.”
She says by having it in the Dekker Centre lobby, many people – including seniors — were able to come and see the displays.
Saturday night’s Evening of Gratitude was also a great success. It was sold out.
“It was brilliant; I mean it was stunning. The food was amazing, the entertainment was amazing; our awesome bidders just outdid themselves,” McGuire says.
The rehearsal room was packed for Breakfast with Santa on Sunday morning, the last day of the three-day festival.
“We opened the doors at 9 (a.m.) and they were lined up already at 8:30,” McGuire says.
She estimates about 800 people came to the Festival for Breakfast with Santa.
That was far more than organizers had anticipated, so they were only able to feed about 500 before running out of cutlery and paper plates.
Organizers also mulling over the possibility of finding a different venue for that event.
“We’re considering alternatives as to how to handle breakfast with Santa and the pictures with Santa. Unfortunately, there’s no way that we can change the lineup because there’s only the one Santa,” McGuire says.
“We’re thinking maybe in a different venue close to (the Dekker Centre) where the kids can run around a little bit more. We kind of filled them up with sugar and then told them to be quiet,” she said with a laugh.
Overall, McGuire is happy with how this year’s edition of the Festival of Trees went in its new venue.
“We’re very, very grateful to all of our volunteers – and that includes the chairs – because they put in long hours. They were up late and back early. Some of our volunteers are in their 80s and they were troupers. They were out there,” she says.
“We had some new chairs this year for some of our events and they worked very, very hard. There was just a lot of laughter. It was just an absolute delight to go out there and work. We had a lot of fun and everybody was in it for the right reasons. There were no theatrics or anything, which you get sometimes.
“I was just really proud of what we achieved.”
