• Santa and Mrs. Claus will be on site for two hours each day.

Gather on 89 in downtown Afton is hosting the first annual Star Valley Festival of Trees with a Gingerbread House Contest and Wonderland Walk on Friday and Saturday, November 24-25 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. both days.  The festival is a charity event benefiting food pantries throughout Star Valley.  Cost of admission is a food or monetary donation to the food pantries.

“We have wanted to establish an annual tradition to host a Festival of Trees in Afton ever since we bought our building,” said Bethany Packard, referring to the Gather, Giftery, Swirl Complex at 409 South Washington. As a member of the Board of Directors with the complex, Packard met with SVI Media to discuss the event.  She explained that local tree festivals in the past have faced challenges due to the extraordinary amount of work involved with organizing and presenting this type of event.

“We’ve been able to assemble a team of about a dozen on our board and have built this small army of people who are helping us put together the Star Valley Festival of Trees,” said Packard, explaining that the volunteers come from communities throughout the entire valley. “We are really excited. We don’t want this to be just an Afton event. We want it to be a Star Valley event. We’ve got wonderful people from throughout the valley working with us and we’re just so grateful to have this much help in putting this together.”

The festival will feature trees donated and decorated by local businesses and civic organizations, which will be raffled.  A gingerbread village of houses created by community members will also be on display to spark the spirit of joy and giving that brightens that Christmas Season.

Five civic leaders in the valley have been engaged as judges for the Gingerbread House Contest. Judging will take place Friday morning, and ribbons will be on display throughout the two-day event.  A People’s Choice Award will also be offered on the gingerbread houses and will be announced following voting closure at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Individuals and organizations participating in the festival can donate their tree or gingerbread house to the fundraising raffle or enter it for display only. Trees and gingerbread houses available for purchase through the raffle will have a For Sale sign in front them and people can place their raffle tickets in a basket that will be placed in the front of items.  Raffle tickets are $10 each.  Guests can save by purchasing six tickets for $50 or 12 tickets for $100.  There is no limit on the number of tickets a guest can purchase.  Raffle entries will close Saturday at 7 p.m.  The Drawings will take place  Saturday at 7:30.

Santa and Mrs. Claus will be on site Friday from 6-8 p.m. and Saturday from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Professional photos with Santa will be available for families to purchase.

A Chef’s Soup Lunch will be served for a minimum donation of $5 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. both days, offering a variety of soups, homemade breads, cookies and a water with each lunch served.

“We thought that lunch would be a really fun thing for community shoppers since Friday is Black Friday and Saturday is Small Business Saturday,” said Packard. “We hope that as the community is shopping downtown, they will come by the Festival of trees for a light lunch and browse through the trees while they’re out shopping for gifts for the loved ones. It’s going to be awesome!”

Raffle winners will be notified Saturday evening of their win.  Each raffled tree will remain decorated and be shrink-wrapped that night, and delivered to the winner on Monday, November 27.

All proceeds from the event will be divided equally among the three food pantries in the valley. “Every single penny will go toward feeding our friends in need throughout the valley this season,” said Packard. “We are really excited about that. It’s really, really going to be awesome, and $100 is a smoking deal for a fully decorated tree,” Packard smiled.  “We invite the community to come out and support the food banks.”

Packard’s voice was thick with emotion as she offered a plea to the community. “We really love this valley, and we are so grateful to be part of it. We have been so touched by all the stories that we have heard of how the community rallies around those who are in need. I just love the servant’s heart that this community has in spades. I would really ask that the community members come out and consider their favored circumstances and all the blessings in their lives and see if this isn’t a way that they could turn and bless the lives of others whose hands are hanging down at this time or whose burdens are really heavy.  Let’s see if we can’t lift their hearts during this season.”