The Northern Lights Health Foundation (NLHF) has announced this year’s Festival of Trees presented by Syncrude will go ahead.
However, the foundation said this year will be different due to various reasons, including social distancing guidelines, the economic depression and flood recovery.
There will be no major gatherings for this year’s event, but the foundation said those events will be back once everyone can safely gather and socialize.
Instead, the Festival of Trees will be a 15 day Winter Wonderland with silent auction items, photo booths and raffles.
The Winter Wonderland will be a ticketed event setup at the North Terminal building of the Fort McMurray International Airport from Nov. 14 to 28.
Guests are asked to pre-book and pay for timeslots to allow as many people through as possible.
The Festival of Trees Gala Tree Auction will be a virtual event with up to 15 trees to be bid on.
All trees will be a part of the Winter Wonderland silent auction, then 15 pre-selected trees will be added to the live auction with bidding starting at the value generated by the silent auction.
Information on sponsorship and tree submissions can be found on the Health Foundation website.
More details on the Virtual Online Gala and Winter Wonderland will be released in the coming weeks.
Last year, the Festival of Trees raised $650,000 for local healthcare.
