Thanks to community, Christmas show benefits Pomerene Hospital
The Spirit of The Season
A record 88 Christmas trees, centerpieces and wreathes were donated to the annual Pomerene Auxiliary Christmas Festival this year.
The coming Christmas season means another Christmas extravaganza presented by the members of the Pomerene Hospital Auxiliary, and from Thursday, Nov. 30 to Saturday, Dec. 2, the members provided some serious Christmas aura with the annual Pomerene Hospital Auxiliary Christmas Festival at Berlin Grande Hotel.
The conference room in the hotel was transformed into a Christmas wonderland for this annual fundraiser.
Susan Miller, Pomerene Auxiliary volunteer coordinator, said this was the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year, and she said experiencing the zeal of the community to donate funds or create pieces for the event is humbling.
Miller has a keen eye for decorating, having created several of the Christmas decorations including several trees from the donations.
“I love to decorate, and it’s kind of calming for me despite all of the work that we have to do for this event,” Miller said. “This is always a week filled with a lot of work for us, but it is also one that we look forward to each year because it is such a blessing to all of us.”
This fundraiser allows the auxiliary to provide the hospital with numerous updates and improvements, the group having redone the ER waiting room this past year among improving other features throughout the hospital. The group is currently focused on updating the hospital’s transportation van.
“Wherever there is a need is where we want to help,” Miller said.
The auxiliary’s members also donate their time volunteering at the hospital when possible and a need arises.
This year’s show featured a total of 88 trees, centerpieces and wreathes, an increase of more than 20 from last year. Miller credited the community.
The event includes two days for the public to view and purchase the items and a Patron’s Night the night prior to the event. That night also includes a bevy of judges, and new to the judge’s group this year was Bev Keller, editor of The Budget.
Her thoughts upon entering the Christmas show in the conference room at Berlin Grande Hotel summed up what many people think and experience when they arrive.
“It felt magical,” Keller said. “I got here before many of the lights were turned on, and it just felt magical to watch all of these Christmas lights come on one by one and light up the center. The ambience, with the lights, the sounds of Christmas, the smell of cookies, it was fantastic because they are all things you think about on Christmas morning.”
Sherry Gintz of Fredericksburg was honored to receive the Best Wreath Award. She and her husband are admitted decoration traditionalists and enjoy decorating no matter the season.
“Any time you come through Fredericksburg, we’ll be the home with all of the decorations in front,” she said.
She said they are always ready and willing to lend a hand when someone comes calling for a decorative donation, and she jumped at the opportunity to make the wreath.
“We love helping others, whether it’s our neighbors or an organization,” Gintz said. “I wanted to make something nice and colorful, and I liked the plaid look that kind of goes with a lot of different seasons.”
Heather Vance of Centor was one of the people put in charge of creating a decorative Christmas tree for the function. She said being part of a company that is so willing to invest in community is special.
“We love getting involved with community,” she said.
She teamed up with fellow Centor employee Brittany Pfeister, and the two put together a tree that was part of the aura of the displays.
“We love decorating, and this event is beautiful,” Vance said. “There’s such a neat spirit to this. It seems so serene, and it’s full of Christmas joy.”
Megan Roberts’ family has been donating items to the auxiliary show for many years, but Roberts said this year she wanted to do something really unique.
Her effort paved the way for the piece to earn the Christmas Spirit Award. Roberts hand painted the moment from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” where the gang sings “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”
In addition to the painting, she included Charlie Brown’s initial Christmas tree with one red ornament wrapped tenderly in Linus’ blue blanket. Above the painting she wrote Linus’ “true meaning of Christmas” speech of the nativity scene.
“My mom absolutely loves ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas,’ so growing up, that’s all we watched. I’ve been wanting to make one of these for her and decided to also make one for this event,” Roberts said.
Roberts said she enjoys being creative, although she hasn’t done a lot of painting, but she took her time and saw it all come together.
“I drew it once, then had to erase it because it wasn’t to scale,” she said. “I drew it again and then stayed with it until it was done. In the past years, we have always bought items for this event, so this is the first year we’ve actually created something.”