Description

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Grayling Mini Mall as the Grayling Promotional Association (GPA) prepares for its 25th annual Festival of Trees, a two-week fundraiser that kicks off on Friday, November 15.

This year’s event features drawings for over 60 decorated Christmas trees and 35 gift baskets donated by businesses, organizations and individuals throughout the community.

Participants can purchase raffle tickets at $2 or six for $10, then choose their favorite trees and baskets and place their ticket stubs in the corresponding containers. The drawing takes place on Sunday, December 1, with the winners notified by phone.

Additional Festival of Trees events include a visit by Santa Claus on Saturday, November 23, from 12 noon to 3 p.m., a Christmas store in which shoppers can find a large selection of gently-used holiday items and a memory tree, with its donations going to River House, Inc. in Grayling.

“I’d like to thank all who decorated trees and gave baskets,” said Gail Swope, chairperson. “We couldn’t do the Festival of Trees without them.”

The Mini Mall is located at 2384 South I-75 Business Loop in Grayling. The festival takes place in the mall’s main corridor on Mondays-Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (with the exception of Thanksgiving Day).

“We then put all the proceeds back into Grayling,” said Swope. “Some of our recent projects include planting and tending flowers throughout town, purchasing benches for the city park and lights in the downtown area, painting all the electrical boxes in town and giving money to support Wellington Farm Park, Kirtland Community College, AuSable Artisan Village and the Fourth of July fireworks—just to name a few.”

“This is our biggest fundraiser,” she said. “And we think the people of Grayling look forward to it every year because it’s a great event for families. It gives you the feeling of both Christmas and community rolled into one.”