Wyo4News staff, [email protected] [PRESS RELEASE]
December 02, 2023 —
According to Kayla Mannikko, YWCA Development Director, this year’s Festival of Trees had a total of 18 fully decorated trees and a mix of wreaths, baskets, and decor items that raised close to $6,000 online. The live auction trees raised over $13,000, and then, with the raffle and monetary donations, the event raised an approximate total of $22,000.
“I have been with the organization for 11 years now, and this was my eighth year of organizing this event, which is my favorite fundraising event! I always enjoy kicking the holidays off with our community and it’s always nice to put a face to our biggest supporters!” said Mannikko. “Commerce Bank of Wyoming has been sponsoring this event for the past 5 years, and they are a HUGE part of our success; we can’t thank them enough for their help.”
The 1st Place People’s Choice award went to the “Vintage Santa” tree that was decorated and donated by Mack & Co and Wyoming Freight Company.
The 2nd Place People’s Choice award went to “Peppermint Winter Wonderland” decorated and donated by Commerce Bank of Wyoming Amanda & Alex DeBernardi
The 3rd Place People’s Choice award went to “It Takes a Village” decorated and donated by the Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Directors.
We had a competition between two “village trees”. The first tree was called “Old Fashioned Christmas Ladder Village Tree,” donated by Dorraine Whelan & Cheryl Petek, and the other tree donated by the Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce was called “It Takes a Village”. The winner of the competition was the Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce.
Wire Brothers purchased three trees and will be donating them back to our community to three families who are in need of a tree.
If you get on the Festival of Trees (aesbid.org) auction site and go to “Live Preview”, you will see all 18 trees along with who donated a tree this year.
