PORT ANGELES — The 20th annual Festival of Trees gala raised about $102,000 on Friday for the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and Port Angeles Exchange Club.
The event included the auction of decorated Christmas trees and wreaths, which alone netted about $76,000 for the organizations, said Bruce Skinner, OMC Foundation executive director.
The trees, 40 in total, and wreaths can be viewed for $5 a person for one more day today at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St.
Also included in the total amount raised is revenue from tickets and the approximately $18,000 raised in memory of Dr. John Siemens, who died in March, and Dr. Quentin Kinter, who died in 1999.
The event raised more than it did last year, when it netted about $90,000, but it wasn’t a record, Skinner said.
“After several years of growing, it dipped 10 percent last year,” he said. “But now we’re back to where we normally are.”
Highest bid
The highest bid of $5,700 went to a tree called “Here’s to Mom.”
Designed by Sherry Phillips, the tree included decorations used by her mother, Eleanore Phillips.
Sherry Phillips said her mother, who died in January at the age of 89, loved Christmas.
“We just felt as a family this would be a nice tribute to her and be something that she would be pleased to know that we had done for others to enjoy,” she said.
The top bidder of each tree gets prizes, called premiums.
The premium for Sherry Phillips’ tree is a dinner with Brown and Sara Maloney of Sequim and a tour of their car collection.
A tree called “A Dickens Christmas” won the Designer’s Choice Award.
Designed by Kathy Skinner and Pat Elmer, the tree was decorated with hand-painted porcelain buildings inspired by Charles Dickens’ novels.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
