The 2023 Lac La Biche Festival of Trees conclude last Sunday afternoon.
The names of 68 winners — one for each tree on display inside the Bold Centre community hall — were drawn and announced by Pat Boon Anderson, chairperson of the Festival of Trees Committee and co-founder of the popular annual event.
This marked the 13th anniversary of the Festival of Trees, which got its start in 2010.
After the announcement of the winners, there was a short presentation for Boon Anderson, who retired this past June after teaching at JA Williams High School in Lac La Biche after 43 years, and has been actively involved with the Festival of Trees since its inception. She received a scrapbook showing dozens of newspaper clippings from the Lac La Biche POST over the years since the festival first began.
The event's namesake raffle, which began with half a dozen decorated trees in the old J.A. Williams High School gym, in what is now the Aurora Middles School, has grown to be a showcase of almost 70 trees. This year, 70,000 raffle tickets were sold, with the large crowds filling the Bold Centre Community Hall to see the trees and prizes donated by local businesses and community groups. Many stayed for the Sunday afternoon ticket draw to select the winners, watching as bins were filled with raffle tickets from each tree, and one lucky winner was selected for each tree.
Proceeds from the raffle will go back to local groups and organizations, including many that volunteered in the many areas of the weekend Festival of Trees event. In addition to the funds from the raffle sale, prizes on several of the trees included donations to local charities. The Edcon Power Tongs tree include thousands of dollars in prizes for lucky winner Kent Davidson — plus the opportunity for him to donate $6,000 to local charitable organizations in the community in his name.
