Part of the success was due to the highest-ever total for the silent auction of $14,727.
“We are extremely excited with the results of our Festival of Trees this year. The silent auction was our highest ever, totalling $14,727. We had 131 items donated to us, which is outstanding,” said Dawn Gutzke, executive director of the Family Place.
“Thank you to everyone who took the time to bring in and donate these special items, without them there would be no auction. We were flooded with love all week long watching the silent auction bids. Thank you to everyone who participated in bidding and purchasing, we appreciate it so much,” she added.
The main part of the festival were 22 decorated Christmas trees, which people could view in person at Barber Motors and Great Plains Ford, and they were auctioned online all day Thursday. The trees brought in a total of $26,100, plus the Angel tree at Fletcher’s Funeral Chapel brought in $800. Pictures with Santa, held this year at Blue Earth’s Christmas store, raised $800, and there were donations of $2,000 from Great Plains Ford, $500 from Crescent Point Energy, and $1,000 from Kal Tire.
“We had 22 stunning trees in the online live auction, and watching the community bid all day was so overwhelming. They just kept going up and up!” said Gutzke.
“We are so thankful for each and every tree that gets donated to us. People take so much time and care to make their unique and special for us and we just love them all.”
Gutzke added that the Tree Festival is particularly important to the Family Place to help keep their doors open and programs running throughout the year, such as Mini-Go and drop-in play areas.
“This event means the world to us and the community was right with us once again. We feel so blessed and loved and no words can express how truly thankful we are for all the support we receive every year,” she said.
“The Festival of Trees money is what keeps the doors open here at The Family Place. We use this money in our budget to pay overhead costs that grant funding won't cover. Without this event we wouldn't be able to offer the community the extensive programming that we do now.”
She added these funds also allows the Family Place to offer programming free for all families so that everyone can participate, “which is very important to us that each and every family feels welcome and can join in everything we offer.”
The highest bid for a tree this year was $3,000 for the YF Wives tree, which had the theme, “Cheers to 100 years”, by Andy Barber. The second highest amount was $2,200, bid by Mark Bratrud for the tree from Southern Glass Works, entitled, “A Cozy Christmas”.
Two trees went for $2,000, including Weyburn Credit Union’s tree, “Snowed In”, bought by Minard's Leisure World, and Great Plains Ford’s tree, “A Gift to Bring You JOY”, bought by Annugas Compression.
The tree bought by Annugas was donated back to the Family Place to give to a family, as was the tree bought by Darren Boren, who paid $800 for Canadian Tire’s tree, “Falalalala”.
Two trees were bought for $1,900. The tree donated by Re/Max Weyburn Realty, the “Merry Christmas tree”, was bought by the Weyburn Credit Union, and the tree donated by Prairie Chiropractic and Wellness, “A Golden Christmas”, was bought by Britney Fisher.
From the silent auction items, the highest price bid was $800 for a Traeger Tailgater from New Age Home Furnishings, bought by Coralee Bailer. The second highest bid was $750 for a propane fire table from Weimer’s Hometown, bought by Marcy Labbie.
This year’s fundraiser total exceeded last year’s virtual event which raised $30,231, but was slightly lower than the last in-person event in 2019 and 2018, when the totals were $48,136 and $48,265 respectively. Those events also had the advantage of raffles and the 50-50, which has not been held with the virtual events. The highest-ever year for fundraising was 2016, when the festival raised $65,679.
