Trimming time
Newport bringing back Festival of Trees
Residents of Newport will have the chance to determine the winners of the city’s Festival of Trees contest while helping raise money for the local scholarship program. Julie Allen, director of the Newport Area Chamber of Commerce, said she is excited to bring back the Festival of Trees.
“Our local extension agent at the time held a festival of trees event, but it was in our lobby, and we loved it so much,” Allen said. “When she moved, it kind of stopped, so we are excited to bring it back because it was such a popular event.’
After the absence of the Festival of Trees for six years, the event will return to the lobby of the chamber’s building.
Any youth group, business, church or nonprofit group can decorate a tree and enter it into the contest at no charge, but contestants must provide their own trees. There will be three categories in the contest: Most Comical, Most Traditional and Most Unique. The sole reward for the winners from each category will be bragging rights, backed up by a certificate or plaque.
Brandi Ford, a facilitator with the John 3:17 Ministry, said the organization sees the festival as an opportunity for its participants to be involved in the community. According to John 3:17’s website, the ministry is “a faith-based Christian recovery center for women who have made a commitment to overcome addiction, make positive lifestyle changes, develop spirituality, improve parenting skills and become productive members of society.”
“We like to do anything we can do to be involved with the community,” Ford said. “It’s just an opportunity to do something fun and pretty.”
John 3:17 will decorate and enter a tree into the traditional category. It is the ministry’s first time to participate in the contest, but its members do have experience decorating Christmas trees. About four years ago, the ministry built a dormitory, and Ford has been a house mom for the dorm. She said many of the residents had never celebrated Christmas,
and that led her to make tree decorating a tradition.
“After we [return from having] Thanksgiving dinner here at the church that we’re affiliated with … then we decorate [a tree] with big, bold and colorful lights that look kind of old-fashioned. Then the girls hang ornaments, and we tell what we’re thankful for to close out Thanksgiving and then go into the Christmas holiday season,” Ford said.
She added that the organization is always excited about Christmastime.
“Well, I love Christmastime,” she said. “Our ministry, of course, donates a lot of time to learning about Jesus and the birth of Jesus, so it is a special time of the year.”
At the time of the interview with Allen on Nov. 17, John 3:17 was the only organization that had entered the contest. She said there are other church groups and schools interested in participating, but they hadn’t turned in their forms. Allen didn’t have an estimate on how many organizations are expected to enter the contest, but she said she hopes to see the lobby filled with trees.
Residents of Jackson County will have the opportunity to be the judges for the contest. Residents will have to donate in order to have a vote. Each dollar donated equals one vote, with only cash and checks accepted. Votes can be cast beginning Dec. 1 in the chamber’s lobby, and the deadline to cast a vote will be at noon Dec. 23. Allen said the chamber is looking at ways to allow online voting in the future, but that depends on how successful the festival is this year.
The donations from the festival will fund the chamber’s scholarship program.
“The scholarship program allows Jackson County [high school] seniors to fill out one scholarship application, but it makes them eligible for up to a dozen different clubs, organizations and local businesses who give scholarships,” Allen said. “We’re hoping to expand the amount of dollars that we get and bring awareness to the program as well.”
Allen explained that the program makes the scholarship process easier for the students and donors, allowing students to apply for all the local scholarships available just by filling out one application. The program takes care of the paperwork involved for donors. Before the students are awarded a scholarship, they have to show proof of enrollment at a university. Allen said there are scholarships of up to $20,000.
In order to maximize turnout for the Festival of Trees, the chamber extended the original dates of the festival to make it last the whole month, Allen said.
There will be an open house from 2-4 p.m. Dec. 20 at the Newport Area Chamber of Commerce, 201 Hazel St., for people to view the trees and vote on their favorites.
The form for organizations to enter a tree in the contest can be found at files.constantcontact.com/5795d8ce001/54f48638-1246-423aa9ad-bc3d6486d54a.pdf, and entries are due Tuesday.