I-CAN, Turner Broach and Christmas Trees

I work for a small family owned company called Turner Broach and Cutting Tools. Its a machine shop and I still dont quite get what they do out in the shop, but the end result is these parts end up in jet engines. My boss, Kay is involved in a local community charity called I-CAN. It has been in existence for 17 years and their goal is helping the at risk youth and children. They do some very amazing things with some even more amazing results. Friday night was the 5th annual Festival of Trees. this is a silent auction and Christmas tree auction to benefit this charity. Its a semi formal dinner banquet as well.

This year Kay donated a 7 1/2 foot tree. We needed to come up with a theme and after alot of thinking, and just plain running out of time, I came up with Snowman Christmas. It was a tree decorated with red and white, snowmen of all kinds, icicles and snowflakes. And ALOT of bows. So Thursday Kay, her Brother John, and myself headed for the ballroom of the San Marcos Hotel in Chandler to set out tree up. Meeting all of the other participants was very exciting, and the other trees were just beautiful. I was covered in glitter from head to toe. LOL

Friday night came, dinner was wonderful. Beautiful wreaths and arrangements were offered for the silent auction, then the Tree auction began. The first two trees were from the police department and the fire department. Both the Chief of Police and the Chief of Fire were there to get it started. They were really funny and they mangaed to get $6,500.00 each for their trees. The started on one side of the room and the trees were going for $300.00 to $600.00. Our tree was the last. The tree next to ours was titles Sex in the City and it was very cute and came with a large pink high heel chair. I really thought it would get the most bids. My boss was bidding on it, and I didnt realize at the time, she was trying to get it for me. I thought that was so incredibly sweet, but their was another woman who wasnt leaving without that tree. LOL she won with a bid of $1,500.00. Then our tree was up. The paddles started flying! I was so excited. The auctioneer even joked "Now we have an auction!" When it was all said in done the winning bid was $1,800.00. I was so excited to have created something to help out these kids. After all of the trees and silent auctions were tallied they earned an amazing $80,000.00 . It was an amazing evening. There were elected official in attendance as well. After the auction was a local band called The Chris Parker Project. If your local and ever get a chance to see them preform,, do so, there were great! So, I have added some pictures of Turner Broach, some of the other trees entered and our Snowman Christmas that I was very proud to be part of.... until next time...... (())gail