A tradition of thinking of others

CHENEY – Not only is Marketplace Bakery & Eatery owner Lori Musgrave excited about this year’s Cheney Festival of Trees, but she can hardly contain her enthusiasm for the fourth edition next year.

Cheney’s third-annual community fundraiser has nine trees — same number as 2018 — but Musgrave said not only have all six sponsoring businesses pledged to have trees in 2020, but an additional five more want in.

“That just goes to show what an amazing community we have,” Musgrave said.

Sponsors this year returning from 2018 are Jackie Scholz State Farm Insurance, the Mason Jar and Yoke’s Fresh Markets. New sponsors are STCU, Tire Alliance and the Cree Family — one of whose members sits on the board of directors for this year’s organization receiving 100 percent of the raffle revenue — Camp Comia.

According to its website, Camp Comia — located just south of the Cheney Rodeo grounds — has a three-fold mission “to conduct educational programs and activities designed to develop leadership skills, self-reliance, teamwork, and service in the youth and adults of the community; to support other not for profit organizations and groups by providing a facility and resources to conduct good educational programs and activities for the citizens of the community and to provide to the community a facility for use in the event of an emergency or disaster.”

Each of the sponsor trees is decorated by the sponsors themselves, and has gifts that hold to a specific theme, with some gifts of the larger type such as a paddleboard and a set of tires from Tire Alliance with a value up to $1,000. There are also three “community trees,” decorated by Musgrave and others, where a number of businesses have pledged items, with one tree’s items valued at $1,000 and another around $800.

“We just take a little bit and make it a beautiful tree,” Musgrave said.

Raffle tickets are just $1 each. Buyers place however many number of tickets they wish in a box at each tree – similar to what is done with Spokane Symphony’s “Christmas Tree Elegance” held yearly at the Davenport Hotel. At 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21, Musgrave said they will draw winners for each tree, with tickets being able to be purchased up to the time of the drawing.

Musgrave has done a couple different things this year to decorate her business for the season and the trees, such as removing dining tables from a back alcove and setting up a wintery display. She said the display has proved popular, with people coming in to take family photos while looking at the various trees.

As always, Musgrave and her staff have decorated a special tree with gift ideas for residents at Cheney Care Center “who wouldn’t be having a Christmas” without the donations. The community can get involved in this by stopping by, picking a card and purchasing and returning the gift.

Musgrave said the Cheney High School cross country team will pick up the gifts Christmas Eve morning and deliver them to the Care Center. The Lions Club will have members helping assemble all the gifts to be wrapped, with over 40 special Christmas cards delivered that were created by residents attending Holiday Hoopla on Dec. 6, as well as cards from a Cheney elementary school.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].