By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The annual Festival of the Trees fundraiser silent auction is underway at the Arc Thrift Shop in downtown Hays, showcasing incredible creativity that results in Christmas decorations featuring an array of bold colors and dramatic themes.
Funds from the event will go toward the ARC Park, 3300 Hillcrest Drive, where construction began on an amphitheater in September. The park already features a playground with accessible playground equipment and a splash pad.
While the fundraiser is decidedly a Christmas affair, the sale marks the culmination of a year’s work.
“I start in January, when donations are coming in, and I plow through all the Christmas stuff, and I just set stuff aside,” said Kathy McAdoo, Arc of Central Plains executive director. “And then from all that stuff that gets set aside, this gets created.”
She said unusual things come in, but that only makes for more unique decorations.
“The more unusual, the better,” McAdoo said. “It's different every year because the donations are different every year. But the cool thing is this to look at what you can do with things you buy in a thrift store.”
After setting items aside in June, work began handcrafting various Christmas adornments from those donations made to the Arc Thrift Shop, 600 Main.
“If it weren't for them, this wouldn't happen,” she said. “Not at all.”
The pair’s creativity was on full display this year, with decorations and trees made from items sometimes never thought of as Christmas decorations.
Examples include a Christmas wreath made from a horse collar and a neon Elvis sign that stands in as a tree topper.
But creating one-of-a-kind Christmas decorations out of them is a valuable way to help the community and more than a bit of fun, Heier said.
“When I first started doing it, it was like, ‘Oh, my goodness, you can come and create something from something that someone else has given away, And it will benefit the IDD community as well.’ OK!” she said. “And through that process, I have made wonderful friends. It just makes me feel good to see that something is being used and reused and redone, and it's not being thrown away and going for a wonderful cause.”
McKenzie said just recently she saw a heartwarming reminder of why the months of work are so valuable in a post on the ARC Park Facebook page that showed an area resident enjoying the accessible playground.
“His smile is just huge, and his mom says, 'We come here because this is the only park he can be a kid at,' ” she said. “And so that's my purpose in being here.”
Exploring fun ideas to create the decorations makes it even better, McKenzie said.
Among her creations this year are felt mice — cleverly placed around one tree, visible to only the most attentive passerby — and bees made out of old beads.
“I like to find things and turn them into entirely different things,” McKenzie said.
Among her favorite decorations this year is a Nutcracker ballet-themed tree featuring the felt mice and ballet fixtures.
“And then I have the Buddy the Elf tree, which I have a lot of the phrases from Buddy the Elf the movie with Will Ferrell,” McKenzie said.
One of Heier’s favorites is a tree featuring a tabletop-sized nativity.
“That was the inspiration for the tree,” McAdoo said. “That is where that came from, we built a tree around that nativity. And that happens frequently, one little thing becomes the inspiration for a whole tree. Like the Elvis light.”
Another item of note during this year’s auction features trains from volunteer Cal Mahin.
“He donated all of these Hallmark Christmas ornaments,” Heier said. “And when they came in, it was like, ‘I really want to do something with that tree.’
“And we're calling it Cal’s Train Tree,” she said.
While many of the trees and decorations are made of repurposed items, some of the auction items are vintage Christmas decorations or fashionable modern pieces that had been donated.
“We get things like Waterford ornaments and other things that are out in the hallway that, you know, we don't have to do anything with,” McAdoo said. “But they're unique enough that we include them in the auction because they're unique. And they're a little more high-end.”
She said the best way to experience the amount of detail and creativity put into this year’s silent auction is to visit the Arc Thrift Shop, open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
“It's important to go online and see them,” McKenzie said. “But coming in person, you get to see the trees up close and personal and really look at them and kind of go, ‘Oh, look what they did with this and turned it into that.’ ”
To view items online and bid, visit haysarcpark.org.
McAdoo encourages everyone to “bid high and bid often.”
The auction closes at 5 p.m. Nov. 15.
