Festival of Trees heading to Enders; costume sale this week
Enders will be bustling with events as the holidays approach, including the Festival of Trees on Nov. 22
Last year’s Festival of Trees was a massive success, bringing in donations and, most importantly, lots and lots of people to the library for the event. In addition to the trees themselves, the event featured raffle items, kids “shops,” a visit from Santa Claus, and more. According to Friends of the Library President Beth Cheirrett, last year’s event brought in a total of $10,000 to support the library. It was by far the biggest amount raised since the event was started in 2017.
According to Cheirett, “last year, the library building was simply too full during the festival. We are excited to announce that this year’s event will be held at the historic Enders Building, giving us plenty of space for trees, wreaths, and guests to enjoy the festivities! Huge shoutout to the city for allowing us to use the building and for being so accommodating with our planning and requests. We are so grateful for their partnership!”
The project of potentially turning the Enders building and geyser into part of a state park is underway, but given the relatively glacial pace of the bureaucratic forces involved, the city determined that while they await whatever the future might hold for Enders they should use it in the meantime. The Enders building is currently being rented out for events by the city, who is finalizing a rate schedule and service contract. A Turner Job Fair, and the Soda Springs HS Homecoming dance are among the earliest renters to avail themselves of the space, and the Festival of Trees has been given the go ahead to do the same. The space should make for a more open location in which to display the many trees and wreaths that are certain to start coming in, as well as the other planned activities for the Festival.
The schedule is moved forward a bit this year, to avoid the large number of competing events later in December. According to Cheirett, “the Festival will take place before Thanksgiving, so purchases can be enjoyed longer and used throughout the holiday season. Is before Thanksgiving too early? Maybe—but early December is too late.” Cheirett also notes that “we moved the Festival from a Friday to a Saturday. We anticipate that working families would be more likely to attend a Saturday event.”
The Festival itself will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 22. Storytime with Santa will be held the same day, with the time still to be determined.
A variety of sponsorship levels and options are available to individuals, businesses, and organizations interested in either creating a tree to donate for the auction, or having the library design on their behalf. Information can be found on the Friends of the Soda Springs Public Library section of the Library website, and the friends can be contacted at [email protected]. The library can be reached at (208) 547-2606.
The Festival itself will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 22. Storytime with Santa will be held the same day, with the time still to be determined.
Costume Sale
Ahead of Halloween, the Friends of the Library are holding a costume sale inside the library on September 25 from 4 to 6 p.m., September 26 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and at the Fall Festival during the day.
The costumes have been donated by people from all around the area, and are clean and in good shape. You never know what someone else may have outgrown that one of your people might have just grown into! And if we’re being honest, paying a lot of money for something that your kids only wear once is a bit silly—save money and stress by seeing what treasures exist at the library.
There will also be a variety of Christmas decoration items available for sale as well.
