The Tree Room at Bower Place for this year's Festival of Trees. (Red Deer Regional Health Foundation)

By Sheldon Spackman

Adapting To Change

Festival of Trees succeeding online despite pandemic

Nov 20, 2020 | 11:15 AM

Despite the challenge of having to host a major community fundraiser online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers with this year’s Festival of Trees in Red Deer say their 2020 virtual event is going well so far.

Initial plans were to be open to the public under previous COVID-19 health protocols until the tightening of government restrictions for a two-week period starting Nov. 13, which forced them to change course.

“Our team was strategic enough to be able to allow the community to still see things,” explains Manon Therriault, CEO for the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation (RDRHF). “So when you come to (Bower Place) the gates are open, so you can still come in and see them, and then be able to go online and bid on our silent auction items and our trees.”

Residents can view and bid on this year’s silent auction items at www.reddeerfestivaloftress.ca/auction until Nov. 28.

Therriault notes that most of their silent auction items also have a video attached to the auction page as well, making the event as accessible as possible despite being largely online.

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The Tree Room can also be viewed virtually through Facebook Live every day until the festival wraps up Nov. 28.

You can follow them at www.facebook.com/rdrhfoundation to be notified when they go live and see the beautifully decorated Christmas trees.

“I can’t say enough about our sponsors,” beams Therriault. “Everything has changed in such a short amount of time and the support we’re getting from our key sponsors is just unbelievable. They’ve been behind us from the beginning.”

Therriault points out that many of their Christmas trees have already been sold.

“It’s really exciting to see that people are accepting the new changes to the festival this year. We have around 37 Christmas trees this year, so the trees and silent auction items aren’t all that different from other years which is kind of cool to see.”

2020 Festival of Trees proceeds will be used to support the transition to an electronic system of fetal monitoring (EFM) for the labour and delivery unit at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre and other rural healthcare centres in Central Zone.

Fetal heart rates are monitored during pregnancy, labour, and birth to assess the baby’s wellbeing. Currently, fetal heart rate tracings are captured through bedside monitors that print paper records and can only be viewed while at the machine.

Each year, officials note over 2,700 births at Red Deer Deer Hospital alone, with fetal monitoring performed multiple times during pregnancy.

“Given the circumstances, we know that the goal that we had planned for in the past won’t be where we’re at today, but we’ve come up with some really cool, creative ideas to beef-up the revenue coming in,” remarks Therriault. “One of which is our Christmas Jingle Cash Lottery. It’s the first time we’ve ever done that.”

Therriault says the Christmas Jingle Cash Lottery allows one lucky winner to win $10,000 cash for the holiday season. Tickets can be purchased here until Dec. 18. Final draws are Dec. 23.

“We just want to show our absolute appreciation to everyone who put in the time and effort to make this possible,” concedes Therriault. “Festival of Trees never happens without volunteers, so we appreciate them.