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By LeRae Haynes

Last evening at Central GM a showroom full of beautifully decorated Christmas trees were auctioned off to raise money for a wide range of local charities. The event raised just over $5,000.

‘The Celebration of Trees’ began last week---expertly organized by Central GM’s Angela Cole. Sixteen businesses bought trees for $100-$300 each, decorated them, and chose a charity to benefit from their sale in a silent auction.

Dealer Principle Tom Bachynski said that it had been a great week in the showroom, with the momentum of ‘The Celebration of Trees’ building toward the night’s auction results. “All the money from the sale of the decorated trees will go to the chosen charity, and we’ll deliver them to the winners,” he said. “It’s been so much fun explaining this event to people---I’ve seen it done in other places and have wanted to do it here for a while. This is the first time it’s been done in 100 Mile House.”

There was a wide variety in tree size and décor---from elegant to whimsical and from sports theme to traditional. “The response from the business community was immediate,” Tom continued. “In two days the trees were sold.”

Tom said that another fun part of the event was to see the various business representatives come into the Central GM showroom, check out how other businesses had decorated their trees, and ‘tweak’ their own to beat the competition. The participants were Tim Hortons, A&W, NAPA, Hub International, Century Hardware, Safeway, Royal Bank, 100 Mile New and Used, WL District Credit Union, Performance All Terrain, 100 Mile House Advisor, The Free Press, 100 Mile Realty, Kondolas, Work ',n Play, 100 Mile Sports Shop, Higher Ground and Tim-BR-Mart.

“There were four small trees raffled off, too, so that everyone could participate and still help a great cause,” he said. “Next we have SPCA Santa Claus coming here for the next three Saturdays---come and celebrate the season with us.”