WEYBURN – The Festival of Trees fundraiser brought in over $48,000 altogether for the Family Place, with the event wrapping up on Thursday evening with the online auction of decorated Christmas trees, along with the silent auction when ended the day before.
“This community is unbelievable,” said Dawn Gutzke, executive director for the Family Place, on Friday, as she went over the final totals and continued to receive donations over and above the festival auction amounts.
The tree festival was on display at the E. Bourassa store on Highway 13 West, and had 25 decorated Christmas trees. The auction raised a total of $29,325, with six of the trees donated back to the Family Place to be given to a family in the community.
In addition, the silent auction had 86 items, and raised a total of $10,542; a raffle raised $800, and the 50/50 raffle raised $585.
There were also donations over and above the auction totals, and included $1,000 from Grant Thornton, $2,000 from Annugas, $1,000 from Mel and Judy Van Betuw, and $3,000 from an anonymous donor, bringing the grand total to $48,252, the most since 2018.
“With the way everything is up, the cost of living is up and everything is more expensive, people just keep giving and giving more,” said Gutzke. “This fundraiser is really what has kept the doors open at the Family Place for the last 25 years, and we couldn’t continue to keep going without the generosity of the community. Another $48,000 event is a real blessing.”
The highest bid for a tree was $3,525 for the tree in memory of Andon Hoff, bought by Gee Bee Construction, and donated back to the Hoff family.
The second highest was $3,100 for the Weyburn Oilwomen’s tree, “Winter Wonderland”, bought by Jeff Tosczak of Weyburn Dodge.
In addition, Jennifer Denouden of Avana Homes of Regina bought three trees for a total of $4,000.
The trees which were donated back included one from SUN, “All Knit Up”, bought by Grant Thornton; the YF Wives tree, “The Caring Tree”, bought by Jennifer Denouden/Avana Homes; Blue Earth’s “A Christmas Snowflake”, bought by Grant Thornton; the tree from CIBC, “Christmas Cookies”, bought by E. Bourassa and Sons; the tree from the Weyburn Police Association, “A White Christmas”, bought by Grant Thornton; and the tree from Blush Studio, “The Blushing Tree”, bought by Darren Boren.
Gutzke extended gratitude for hosting this year to E. Bourassa and Sons, and also thanked the many volunteers who helped out while the trees and silent auction items were on display, and the bidders who bought all of the items.
In addition, players from the Weyburn Red Wings were on hand on Friday to take the trees down and deliver them to the buyers, to those who weren’t able to come pick the trees up themselves.
