On Friday, December 2nd, the Bigfork Museum of Art & History hosted its first annual Festival of Trees. In the initial planning stages, we were totally unsure of what to expect – would anyone help sponsor the event, would anyone donate decorated trees, would anyone COME to the event? Well, we were blown away. We asked, and you all answered (sometimes mysteriously – thank you Meissenburg Designs for the sign that appeared on our front lawn!). In this season of thanksgiving we have much to be thankful for. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Museum, I would like to recognize the people who helped make the event a success, beginning with our generous sponsors - Vinny’s Grille & Sushi Bar, Digital Planet, Northland Hobbies, Bigfork Beauty Shop, The Flathead Beacon, Bob and Edie Sellars, Buzz and Carole Meyer, Budget Framing and the Artist’s Workshop, Everett and Nikki Sliter, Walter and Nancy Kuhn, The Bigfork Eagle, Deaton & Company Real Estate and White Swan Properties, Saga Designs and Mark Norley. You all provided the means with which we were able to produce the event, and we could not have done it without you.
The donated items we received for our auction were incredible! If you didn’t get a chance to see the Museum transformed into a winter wonderland, you missed a spectacular sight! There were 30 auction items – decorated trees, wreaths, centerpieces and tree-themed artwork - donated by Outback Montana, Mary Krause, K. Bonnema Leslie, Lola’s Bolas, Eric Thorsen Gallery, Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey, Lee and Leslie Kuntz, Friends of Denise, Celeste Brigham, Frame of Reference, Julie Wulf, the Library Girls, Bigfork Custom Wreaths, Marnie Forbis, Mountain Lake Lodge, Fran Wade, BUGS, Abe Serrato, Viki’s Montana Mountain Classics, Nancy O’s Interiors, Darrell and Lael Gray Art and Rainy Hartt, the Sistas, Electric Avenue Gifts, Deliah Albee, James Holland, Diana Neville Knowles, the Jug Tree, Donna Shanahan Interior Design, Christine Vandeberg and the BMAH. Jeff Collins did a beautiful job decorating two of the trees. We could hardly keep up with raffle ticket sales thanks to the fantastic items donated by Roma’s Gourmet Kitchen Store, Grille 459 and the Retired Allways Travel Sisterhood. We even had a door prize to give away, thanks to Marilyn and Gordon Graham.
We were very fortunate to have hors d’oeuvres provided by Showthyme, and Celebrate generously loaned us champagne flutes for the evening. Glenn Gardner and his guitar provided beautiful background music. And we would not have gotten anywhere without Donna Lawson, our auctioneer, who was assisted by Gretchen Gates, our very own Vanna White. If you know me, you know I am not a fan of public speaking, so I would personally like to thank Donna for making a welcome speech and encouraging people to support the Museum by placing more bids.
Finally, we are thankful for the crowd of people who attended the Festival of Trees. It is nearly impossible to hold an event between Thanksgiving and Christmas that does not conflict with something else in the Valley. We are grateful you all chose to attend ours.
Christine Vandeberg
President of the Interim Board of Directors
Bigfork Museum of Art & History
