PORT ANGELES — The 2025 Festival of Trees brought in a record-breaking $181,000 for the Olympic Medical Center Foundation, with the top grossing tree, “The Enchanted Ballroom,” selling for $7,500 at the Gala auction.
The top tree, designed by Staci Politika, was one of some 50 creatively decorated Christmas trees that were auctioned off at the Festival of Trees Gala on Friday night.
The 35th annual event, a local tradition over Thanksgiving weekend, began with opening ceremonies on Nov. 25 and continued Friday through Sunday with the Teddy Bear Teas, Senior Breakfast Gala and Family Days.
“It’s great that we continue to set fundraising records during these difficult times for healthcare,” said Bruce Skinner, executive director of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation.
All proceeds are donated to Olympic Medical Center.
Dr. Mark Fischer, president of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation board and a longtime supporter of the hospital, was given the 2025 Littlejohn Award at Friday’s Gala.
The award, established in 2021 in memory of philanthropist Bill Littlejohn and his wife Esther, recognizes people who have contributed to healthcare on the North Olympic Peninsula and to the community in general.
“It’s such as honor to be selected an awardee, given the local health care impact of the Littlejohn family over many years,” Fischer said at the gala.
“I’m very appreciative and humble for this award but also very proud to be associated with our healthcare team, including all OMC staff, nurses, physicians and in particular as it relates to last night, and to be associated with the OMC Foundation virtually since its inception,” Fischer said in an interview on Saturday.
Born in Port Angeles and Jefferson Grade School graduate, Fischer went to high school in Portland, Ore., graduated from Medical School OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) in Portland and completed residency and fellowship training at the University of California San Francisco.
He and his wife Jan returned to Port Angeles, where, as a board-certified internist and pulmonologist, Fischer began practicing in 1980 at the Port Angeles Clinic at Eighth and Vine streets, a practice which later became the Virginia Mason Clinic and then Olympic Medical Physicians.
At OMC, he served as Chief of Medical Staff in 2009, was lead physician in the conversion from paper to electric records, Epic, in 2013, and has been the OMC Physician Lead for Provider Education since 2010.
He joined the OMC Foundation board in the late 1980s, when it was formed as a way to raise funds for equipment, and he has been involved since then, through the expansion of the foundation’s mission to support a scholarship fund for locals to train in medical professions.
He is now serving as the president of the foundation board.
“In 1989, our donation for OMC hospital was $10,000. Over the course of the foundation’s existence, we donated upwards of $17 million over 30-plus years,” Fischer said.
“That’s a pretty remarkable increment, both for OMC and for our community,” he added.
A member of Alpha Omega Alpha and a fellow of the American College of Physicians, Fischer is a lifelong member of the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and has supported the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation with longstanding regional leadership and national advocacy.
“Like the Littlejohns, Mark and his wife Jan have donated both time and money to several good causes, including the new Field Hall, where he currently serves on its board,” Skinner said.
Said Fischer: “This community has so many attributes for a semi-rural community that we can all be proud of, including the health care here for many years.”
He said the consistent goal of the hospital and the foundation has been to improve services for patients.
“We have the history and the future opportunity to keep the patient at the center of what we do, continually striving for quality and safety, and in challenging times, try to pursue the best value and economics we can for a rural community,” Fischer said.
“OMC is incredibly important for this region, the North Olympic Peninsula, from Hood Canal to the Pacific Ocean,” he said. “It’s a community hospital that is important for day-to-day care and also for emergency care. It’s really important for this region.”
During his speech at the Gala, Fischer gave a PowerPoint presentation. The last slide was of him and his wife at Hurricane Ridge on their 50th wedding anniversary, posing with their English lab.
“I can’t thank my wife Jan enough,” he said, adding that she worked as a Head Start teacher and helped put him through medical school.
The two of them have three adult children and 10 grandchildren.
The couple didn’t buy a decorated tree at the Gala, but they did put up their paddles for the Olympic Medical Center Scholarship Fund.
He’s enthusiastic about the program.
“It has been a new program, added to the foundation’s history of donating equipment,” Fischer said. “It leads to the retention of people who want to improve their careers.”
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Leah Leach is a former executive director for Peninsula Daily News.
