Magical trees are poignant reminders

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 1, 2004 | by Lois M. Collins Deseret Morning News

SANDY -- Travis Robison was hit by a car when he 10. He died three days later. This week, his impish grin beams from a photo, a little boy's image caught as he was playing baseball. It's next to a tree decorated with things little boys love, surrounded by handmade elves. Mrs. Claus sits nearby at a sewing machine.

Tim Taylor finds something magical about the placement of this particular display at the Festival of Trees. He's a volunteer, and it's his job to watch a handful of trees on display and answer questions. But he calls people over, because his trees are two of the most special there, he says.

To the left is a tree and bedroom scene called "Sneak a Peek at Santa." It was put up in honor of Clayton Nielson, who was born with a severe heart defect and would have died had he not received a heart transplant. Clayton today beams out from a photo, too, now a teen, healthy and happy.

Travis Robison's family donated his organs, including his heart, to people like Clayton, who would have died without such a gift, Taylor says. That's what makes the placement so special.

Trees large and small -- almost 800 of them -- candies, gifts, tabletop decorations, gingerbread houses, doll houses and playhouses, even a bunk bed shaped like a train are among the offerings at this year's festival, which benefits Primary Children's Medical Center. All the money helps pay for care for needy children.

The festival runs through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., at the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy. There's even a Kids Korner with 18 activities, from talking to one of Santa's elves to the human bubble machine. And, of course, the chance to visit Santa himself. Admission is $4 for adults, $2.50 for children. Today only, up to six family members can get in for $13 total. Senior citizens get in for $2.50.

The gift shop features donated items ranging from quilts to dish towels, scrapbooks and slippers, shirts, candles, stationery, even beautiful bent-wire nativity scenes.

The festival kicked off Tuesday night with an auction of the displayed items and a "lights on" invitation-only program that featured Olympic gold medalist Jim Shea, musical selections from the Centerville Junior High Madrigals and Alumni and remarks by festival chairwoman Lori Peterson. Two children who have been patients at Primary Children's Medical Center, Jourdyn Cleveland and Kellen Gillins, were also part of the program.

Many of the trees, like Travis', celebrate people who have died.

There's the "Deputy Dave Memorial," complete with 145 little toy policemen, to honor Garfield County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Jones, who left behind a wife and five children when he was killed on duty in January 2003.

"Amanda's Tree" remembers Amanda Fackrell with angels, some of them intricately crocheted. The photograph by the tree shows a smiling brown-eyed woman.

"Friends of a Ladybug," a tree covered with pretty spiders and ants and butterflies, remembers tiny Lucy Gladys Plummer, who was born and died prematurely.

"Beary Much Love" has a zillion different teddy bears, something Doreen Smith collected before her sudden death in September 2002. Snoopy was what Laraine Facer Peterson collected, and they adorn the tree created in her honor. She died in September at age 55 from Alzheimer's complications. Christopher Johnson's tree, festooned with cowboy gear, remembers a boy who died at age 7 in an avalanche.

Other trees, like Clayton's, celebrate victory over illnesses in children treated at the hospital. Jennifer Christensen helped put together a country-home theme for "Home for Christmas," celebrating the continuing life of her cousin, Rachelle Bennett, who at 19 just celebrated "her fifth year of beating leukemia." The theme was a natural, Christensen said, because Rachelle is "truly home now. She's done with treatment" and headed off to college at Brigham Young University-Idaho.

From the religious to the funny, the slightly odd and even punny, decorating themes are as varied as the human imagination. There are cowboy trees and those decked with fruit, trees filled with tools or CDs or books or gingerbread men or dolls. One tree is made on a gelatin theme, its shape formed by goblets filled with brightly colored goop. The "Frosty Winterland" tree goes with an intricately crafted quilt by Nuttall's Fabric Center that includes carefully stitched nativities and Santas, each square pieced together with a different shaped stitch, including leaves and snowflakes and hearts.

It's not a quick trip up and down the aisles. People who skip around are apt to miss the mammoth carved tree in Santa's Woodshop, put together by Timberline Woodworkers Supply, or the gingerbread castle --all pinks and purples and oranges -- donated by Melissa Graber. There's even a marionette display.

E-mail: lois@desnews.com