BY CRAIG GILBERT
There will be no Festival of Trees this year.
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For the past several years, theatre production students from Cambrian College turned the science centre into a winter wonderland. |
The event, which has been held inside Science North for the past six years, and held previously at the Steelworkers? Hall, and at the Garson Arena, has been cancelled for 2004.
The Sudbury Lung Association raised $42,000 last year with the Festival of Trees. But this year it doesn?t have a home because Science North is using its space for the Magic Show exhibition.
(The Catholic Charities? Festival of Lights outside the science centre is not affected).
Festival of Trees organizers are optimistic a festival will be held in 2005 at Market Square downtown.
The festival is among the association?s top fundraisers. So, unless two other campaigns can close the gap, the Lungs Are For Life program, Asthma Action program, and the Lung Health toll-free Information Line (1-800-972-2636), will be out a pretty penny, according to area manager Claire Pollesel.
Pollesel is hoping Subway?s Christmas tag campaign will mitigate the loss of revenue.
She also hopes a garden festival April 9, organized in conjunction with the Sudbury Horticultural Society and the Garden Masters of Sudbury, will also raise some cash.
The first Festival of Trees was held at Garson Arena. There was so much power involved that when organizers flipped the switch, they overloaded
the grid and plunged Garson into darkness.
The festival has quadrupled in size since that memorable mishap. Businesses sponsor the decorated trees and wreaths that are sold at auction. People can view the trees in a town-like set before bidding.
In 2003, more than 100 volunteers put together the real tree displays, worth over $200,000.
That figure includes the hours of donated design and labour time and materials, and the value of the wreaths and trees when finished.
Cambrian College?s Black Dog Productions gets theatre arts students at the school involved in the design and construction of the exhibits.
In 2003, they used six pounds of glitter, 75 gallons of paint spread across half a million square feet of canvass and close to a million lightbulbs.
The real trees are recycled and used for garden mulch.
Pending the approval of the agreement with Downtown Sudbury, the festival will be housed at Market Square for the next 10 years.
Downtown Sudbury would be ?ecstatic? to have the festival in the core, according to program co-ordinator Brian Kuczma.
He stressed discussions are still preliminary, and many things - not the least of which are whether the exhibit will fit at Market Square - have yet to
be hammered out.
?It would tie in beautifully to our season celebrations,: said Kuczma.
?It would be more accessible to the general public, being central, and would tie in beautifully with the Santa Claus Parade, Santa watch party and all
our Christmas activities in December.?
