Milestone Award recipient Debbie Coleman (left) and Health Foundation CEO Manon Therriault at Saturday's Festival of Trees Celebration Breakfast, where it was announced the event raised enough money to purchase 19 scopes, plus one scope washer. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

thank you!

2019 Festival of Trees successful despite tough times

Dec 14, 2019 | 12:54 PM

Despite the economy, organizers say the 2019 Festival of Trees, in support of the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation, was a success.

On Saturday, the foundation hosted its annual celebration breakfast to say thank you to volunteers and the community that pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the event.

There it was revealed that those contributions will help purchase 19 of the 28 needed scopes, including six colonoscopes, three bronchoschopes, three cystoscopes, seven gastroscopes, plus one scope washer. These items cost between $12,000 and $153,000 each.

Manon Therriault, foundation CEO, shared a message of gratitude for all who attended the festival and helped out in one way or another.

“The economy has hit us hard this year and we definitely felt it, but our sponsors still pushed through. Festival of Wines had record attendance. We’re really happy to see people are still willing to come out,” she said. “We couldn’t do this without the volunteers. There are so many hours that go in not only during event time, but during set-up and throughout the year. It doesn’t just take the foundation team, it takes a whole community.”

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The festival had 354 unique sponsors, and a total of 1239 volunteers filled 1952 shifts during the Festival of Trees. A number of them were recognized on Saturday for their commitment over the years, including:

Youth Volunteer Award

2018 – Danica McKinstry
2019 – Tucker Latreilli

Corporate/Group Volunteer Award

2018 – Red Deer Twilight Homes Foundation and Red Deer Kiwanis
2019 – Boys & Girls Club of Red Deer & District

Outstanding Contribution Award

2018 – Cheryl Adams
2019 – Shauna Glover

Milestone Achievement Award

2018 – Rocky Rauckman
2019 – Debbie Coleman

Debbie Coleman, Milestone Award recipient and long-time nurse at Red Deer Regional Hospital, says the event pays for vital equipment they wouldn’t be able to buy any other way.

“All the extra things any hospital needs are not generally supplied by the government, and not just the extra, sometimes just the basics, so it’s really important to know we can count on a fundraiser like the festival every year to bring things to our hospital that we count on. Everybody accesses the hospital at one point or another,” said Coleman, who’s donated her time to the festival for 24 years.

“What keeps you there in the long run are the people that you work with and seeing everything come together; it’s always really exciting.”

Therriault noted that next year’s Festival of Trees will have a focus on purchasing medical ventilators for Red Deer Regional Hospital.