SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - After a decade of hospital fundraising, the lights may be coming down for the NorthwesTel Festival of Trees.

The 10th and possibly last festival took place at the Explorer Hotel over the weekend.

Colleen Ingram, co-ordinator of the Festival of Trees, stands next to some of the trees up for auction at this year's event held last Saturday at the Explorer Hotel. - Adrian Lysenko/NNSL photo

"For the 10th and final year as you know it we thought we'd go out with a bang," said Colleen Ingram, co-ordinator of the festival. "Give it our all."

Events this year included breakfast with Santa, the Underground Circus from Vancouver, a silent and live auction, as well as a gala and dance on Saturday night.

And of course the major attraction at the Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation fundraiser was the 22 specially decorated trees.

"We get in touch with local businesses or individuals and see if they want a tree and basically it's you buy a tree and you decorate it how you see fit," said Ingram.

"So they lavishly decorate these trees and auction them off for the most they can get, I mean it is a fundraiser."

About $60,000 was raised for medical equipment at Stanton Territorial Hospital at this year's event, and festival patrons have chipped in more than $1,000,000 since it began in 2001.

"This is our signature event, without this we couldn't purchase that much-needed equipment," said Ingram.

"It's not just for Yellowknife, it's the whole Northwest Territories."

According to Ingram, the event had about 60 volunteers and more than 40 sponsors involved.

"It takes the community to put this together," said Ingram.

"We could not do it without our title sponsors and volunteers."

Saundra Arberry was the volunteer co-ordinator at this year's festival.

"Everybody has said that Yellowknife is a generous place and putting on a festival like this shows that," said Arberry. "With the amount of donations and the amount of people, it's truly amazing given our population."

For next year the foundation is planning to move on to different fundraising ventures.

"On to other things now," said Ingram, who wouldn't disclose too much information but said that the foundation has other ideas in mind that haven't been finalized yet.

"The event doesn't generate the profit that it used to," said Linda Bussey, the foundation's executive director as to why the Festival of Trees is likely coming to a close. "It needs to be reinvented and done different."

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