Christmas Tree Festival planned

It’s back! The 22nd Annual Christmas Tree Festival will be held on Tuesday, December 6 at the Community Church Fellowship Hall at 5:30 p.m. for food and drinks, and at 6:30 p.m. will be the tree, wreath, and specialty items auction. All proceeds go to the Thermopolis Community Fund. Hot Springs Health and Pinnacle Bank sponsor the event.

Spokesperson John Gibbel said, “It’s really exciting. We’re hoping to have over 30 items available for auction. And we just really appreciate those that take their time to decorate and we really appreciate those that take their time to buy because that’s why this program’s been going on. That’s why it’s been successful. That’s the only reason we can exist is because of the community. We have a great community and they stand up and they support this program. So that’s why we’re at 22 years. And that’s kind of a neat thing because we do raise a lot of money to help these groups. And it’s exciting to give it back to them.”

Some of the grants over the past years have been provided to the RWE Yellowstone Trip, 4-H, the Volunteer Fire Department fireworks, Main Street Thermopolis, the Hot Springs County Library Reading Program, Hunting with Heroes, Books for Babies, Brewfest, and many others.

The Festival’s statement said, “We hope you would continue supporting the Thermopolis Community Fund through your support of the Christmas Tree Festival by decorating a tree or wreath this year. We will have 15 artificial trees available and 15 wreaths for decorating. The trees will be available at the hospital to pick up, or they will be set up at the Community Hall on December 5 for decorating. The wreaths will be available at the hospital.”

To sign up for a tree or wreath, please contact Lacy at Hot Springs Health at 864-5089. If you would like to provide your own tree, wreath, or other items for auction, please let her know so they can plan to display it with the other items.