Festival of Trees a yuletide hit!
These were just a few of the over 40 donated holiday decorations that were donated as part of the Silver Valley Seniors' Festival of Trees fundraiser. The items were raffled off last week during an open house event.
JOSH McDONALD
OSBURN –– The Silver Valley Senior’s hosted their Festival of Trees open house fundraiser last week to overwhelming success.
Despite the looming pandemic, the return from the was even bigger than last year’s Festival.
“We received 40 donations, including mini trees, wreaths, swags, baskets, and a walnut charcuterie board, they were awesome,” SV Seniors office administrator Val Evenson said. “At the drawing we had some new supporters and loyal supporters like Pauline Norris, we had a good time.”
This was the first year that the Festival was under the direction of new manager Darrell Lemieux and Evenson, but they didn’t let the current situation slow them down.
In fact, they raised nearly $5,000 this year compared to $2,800 last year.
‘We were pleasantly surprised by the generosity and kindness of the individuals that donated items, bought tickets, sold tickets, and the advice and encouragement from Kathy Davis and Julie Crnkovich who both retired earlier this year,” Evenson. “The individuals and businesses that help support our program are too long to list. We appreciate your support, thank you, thank you, thank you all. It's an honor and privilege for us to have such a fulfilling job. We have a great group of people here that work together well.”
Unlike previous years, this year there will not be trees displayed at the Shoshone County Courthouse as a safety precaution due to the pandemic, instead all of the trees were displayed at the SV Senior Center where folks could peer at them and determine which donated decor they wanted to buy a ticket for.
In 2019, Silver Valley Seniors delivered an average of 1,200 meals per month, but in October of this year alone they delivered 1,800 meals.
The money raised is a huge part of the annual budget for SV Seniors and will be used to help them expand their service, deliver hot, fresh meals to senior citizens in the Silver Valley, vehicle maintenance, and basically keeps the lights at their facility.
“We deliver seven meals per week, Monday through Friday, from Mullan to Kingston,” Evenson said. “We delivered over 1,700 meals in November.”
For more information please contact the Senior Services Office at (208) 752-1194 or stop by at 726 E. Mullan Avenue in Osburn.