40th Festival of Trees underway

McKeesport’s annual holiday event features 91 specially decorated Christmas trees this year.

McKeesport celebrated the first day of its 40th annual Festival of Trees on Thursday with music, special treats and rows of specially decorated Christmas trees.

This year’s festival features 91 Christmas trees, each made by an organization or school in McKeesport. Mayor’s Assistant Jennifer Vertullo, one of the organizers of the event, said the Festival of Trees is something the city looks forward to doing every year.

“It’s chaos, but it’s fun chaos,” Vertullo said. “There’s a lot going on in a very short amount of time, but we love it. Most of this is done by volunteers, like everybody that comes in here to decorate a tree, to work the front door, to work with the children’s area, everybody is kind of giving their time for the community.”

The festival is held at Jacob Woll Pavilion at Renziehausen Park, located on 201 Sycamore Drive. As visitors walk into the pavilion, they’re immediately met by rows of colorfully decorated Christmas trees.

Each tree contains a special touch from the organization that decorated it. The Serra Catholic High School Marching Band adorned its tree with Japanese-style decorations, while Soy Mc-Keesport used handmade decorations depicting De- cember in various Latin American countries.

The tree prepared by the UPMC McKeesport Hospital staff has decorations made from medical gloves and is covered in notes from hospital workers.

“They all have such unique ideas,” Vertullo said. “And I think the thing that surprises us every year is that there are more and more ways for these people to be creative. When you think you’ve seen it all, you have not.”

Attendees can vote on their favorite tree. A “people’s choice” winner will be announced at the end of the festival.

The event will continue through Monday from noon to 9 p.m. each day. Admission is $2 for adults, and children are admitted at no cost with the donation of a canned good or non-perishable food item. Donated food will go to Hope Ministries, which operates a food pantry in the city.

The first day of the festival featured performances by the Twin Rivers Drama Club and the cast of “Shrek Jr.” from McKeesport Little Theater. The drama club gave a musical welcome to Santa Claus, who arrived on a McKeesport Fire Department truck.

Santa will be at the festival every day from noon to 2 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. Other attractions include:

• The McKeesport Area High School Music Department will perform at noon today, and ABC balloon twisting will be featured from 6 to 8 p.m.

• On Saturday, Loretta Owl’s storytime will occur at 12:30 p.m. and CP music instruction will be at 4 p.m.

• On Sunday, photos with the Grinch will be taken from 5 to 6 p.m. and Miss Vickie’s Strings will perform at 6 p.m.

• On Monday, carols by Young Scholars of Greater Allegheny will be at noon, followed by Mikey Dee at 4 p.m., Serra Catholic Music Department at 5:30 p.m. and the Mon Yough Chorale at 7 p.m.

Visitors can find food at a concession stand managed by the McKeesport Recreation Board, and the Semper Fidelis Club will be selling baked goods.

Jackie Blake, a former president of the Semper Fidelis Club, said they’ve been participating in the Festival of Trees for several years. The funds they raise go toward scholarships they give to students in the area.

“We grant two scholarships, sometimes three scholarships, a year for graduating McKeesport High School students,” Blake said. “We are a community group, so anything that’s going on with the community, we try to support them in any way, such as this.”

The Semper Fidelis Club will sell baked goods at the festival from noon to 8 p.m. Friday through Monday Elisha and Steven Singer were at the festival Thursday with their daughter, Desi Singer, a junior at the high school. Desi helped create the McKeesport Area High School and Technology Center tree, which is adorned with Egyptian-style decorations.

“There was definitely a lot of fun and definitely a lot of stress, but it’s worth it in the end,” she said.

Elisha Singer said that she’s been coming to the festival for a long time, but that it was their first time together there as a family.

“I’ve come several times before,” she said. “I actually used to play with the high school orchestra back when I was in high school, when I was her age, but this is our first time as a family, so it’s really cool to see all the trees, and they’ve done an amazing job. It’s such a good community experience.”

Although the Christmas trees are the main event, the Garden Club of McKeesport will have its own celebration from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The McKeesport Regional History and Heritage Center will be open every day from noon to 8 p.m.

The heritage center has a recently opened exhibition room that displays the history of McKeesport over the years. The center will hold gift and raffle basket sales during the event.

To help those wanting to check out the other attractions, the festival will provide free hayrides from the main pavilion to the Garden Club and the Heritage Center. The hayrides will be available from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. today and Monday, and 1 to 4 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said the Festival of Trees brings the entire city together in a way that is special to him.

“We always talk about working together for a better McKeesport, and I think this is the type of event that truly exemplifies just what that means,” Cherepko said. “If it weren’t for volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to really hold these types of events. So we’re very blessed to have all the volunteers that are here that share that same pride.”