Trees on display at annual festival

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

Although the city’s Recreation Board had to scale back some aspects of the celebration due to pandemic restrictions, McKeesport’s Festival of Trees kicked off Thursday.

It’s the 35th year the event has been held at the Jacob Woll Main pavilion in Renziehausen Park.

Recreation Board member Cheryl Cotter, who has managed the festival for 15 years, said patrons can enjoy 42 trees this year that were decorated by local churches, students, nonprofit organizations, elected officials, clubs, first responders and others. 

The event runs from 2 to 8 p.m. through Monday. 

The festival typically features upwards of 80 trees, but the number was scaled back this year so that trees could be spaced far enough apart to allow spectators to practice social distancing.

Other mitigation efforts are also in place.

Cotter said the Recreation Board is following CDC guidelines, including taking the names and contact information of each attendee. All patrons are required to wear masks and use hand sanitizer at the door. Only about 20 patrons at a time will be permitted inside the pavilion. Guests are required to follow a one-way path, which leads them in a circle around the room and gives them a chance to look at each tree once. 

Board members are stationed in the hall to remind guests to refrain from congregating.

“We have masks, if somebody doesn’t have a mask. We have everything. We are prepared,” Cotter said, later adding that the windows in the building are slightly ajar and that fans are blowing to keep air in the building circulating.  

“You pretty much just walk through and see the trees,” Cotter said. “There’s nothing you’re going to touch. You’re just walking through a building.”

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