Published: November 08, 2009 10:32 pm      

HOT SPOT: We Care Trees trimmed and ready for auction Sunday

Fundraising festival on display this week at Kokomo Mall.

Eighty Christmas trees and wreaths line the main hallway of the Kokomo Mall, spanning the distance between Elder-Beerman and JC Penney department stores.

The artificial evergreens are filed neatly in twos, each with a white plastic bucket and sign indicating their names.

That is about where the uniformity stops.

Last week, hundreds of people swarmed the mall for the start of the Trim-A-Tree Festival.

During the event, teams put personalized touches on their trees. Every tree has a name and almost every name has a theme.

The teams decorated their trees based off their themes, and they will remain on display in the mall for the rest of the week.

Kokomo nonprofit organization We Care, which has organized the festival for 17 years, will auction off the trees on Sunday. The auction begins 5 p.m. at the mall. We Care will auction the trees in order, beginning at the south end of the main hallway.

The nonprofit will funnel the auction’s proceeds to its five agencies: the Kokomo Rescue Mission, the Salvation Army, Goodfellows, Bona Vista Rehabilitative Services and the Holiday Gift Lift program at the Mental Health Association of Howard County.

We Care volunteer Mariesa Skogland, who coordinated Trim-A-Tree, said last week the auction raised about $42,000 last year. Trees sell for hundreds of dollars, some for more than $1,000 apiece, she said.

Many of the trees include additions not hanging from branches.

Yet-to-be-wrapped presents are scattered around the floor of the roped-off area in the mall. Children’s toys, such as dolls, basketballs and board games, and grown-up toys, such as tools and cook books, sit under many of the trees.

Hidden among the presents are plastic buckets with slits in the lids.

The buckets are part of the People’s Choice Award, which lets passers-by vote for their favorite trees.

Anyone who wants to cast a vote for a tree must drop a penny in a bucket. The teams whose tree collects the most pennies will receive a trophy.

Skogland said the pennies will usually raise several thousand additional dollars.

• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.

If you go

• WHAT: We Care Tree Auction

• WHEN: 5 p.m. Sunday

• WHERE: Kokomo Mall

• WHY: Proceeds go to We Care’s five agencies: the Kokomo Rescue Mission, the Salvation Army, Goodfellows, Bona Vista Rehabilitative Services and the Holiday Gift Lift program