FOND DU LAC (NBC 26) — The Festival of Trees in Fond du Lac is back for its third year—this time, at the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts.
The festival features 36 trees decorated by businesses, individuals and non-profits.
Consisting of a formal gala on Friday, Dec. 9 and a community event for all ages on Saturday, Dec. 10., guests can bid on the trees in a silent auction with proceeds going to participating nonprofits.
Stephanie Jo Schulz, VP of Events and Marketing for Festival Trees, said the event is aimed at giving back to the Fond du Lac community.
“A lot of these organizations are in line with our mission to further equity, diversity and inclusion concerns in our community,” Shultz said. “Our organization did recently rewrite our mission to be more inclusion based, and that is something that we really want to focus on. So by supporting these organizations, you support the community members that they support.”
Katie Oestreich decorated a tree for the nonprofit the Ledge Games, a yearly timber competition to raise money for scholarships in local tech education.
“Festival trees has been a great organization to work with and get our name out there and make the process of like, decorating our tree and promoting the event very simple,” Oestreich said. “Our hopes for the event are to raise money for our scholarships. Also to get our name promoted out there.”
Tristan St. Mary, director of marketing for Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts, said she hopes this event will attract community attention for the featured nonprofits.
“I think this is a great event, because it really focuses and puts an eye on the different area nonprofits in Fond du Lac that a lot of people aren't familiar with,” St. Mary said. “So it teaches them about where they are, what they do, and how people can get involved.”
To learn more about the Festival of Trees and how to attend, click HERE.
