Baker City’s Festival of Trees brought in over $40,000

By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Thursday, December 7th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News

BAKER CITY – Over $40,000 was raised during this past weekend’s Festival of Trees Gala in Baker City. This was the first year this event was hosted by Baker City Downtown, and it was a huge success.

Money raised during the Festival of Trees will go to 14 different organizations around Baker County. You can view a list of recipients here.

Activities during the “Twinkle in Time” weekend included the Festival of Trees Gala, Family Fun Day, Annual Cookie Crawl, Holiday Shop Hop and more.

Baker City Downtown Director Ariel Reker said, “For Festival of Trees we had 225 people who attended, along with more volunteers. 20 trees were auctioned off, 2 game trees were played for, and 1 raffle tree. There was also a raffle for the centerpieces and a silent auction component on both Friday and Saturday.” While final numbers are not tabulated, Reker says the event far exceeded their goal of $25,000 and broke $40,000.

During the Annual Cookie Crawl, 300 boxes were sold with 25 businesses participating. The weather did not cooperate for the Holiday Shop Hop but the turnout for the Parade and Tree Lightening was better according to Reker.

Learn more about Baker City Downtown and upcoming events and activities at https://www.bakercitydowntown.com/