ST. GEORGE, Utah — Volunteers have made the finishing touches on what usually marks the start of the holiday season in St. George.
Intermountain Health’s Jubilee of Trees at the Dixie Convention Center starts its 41st year Thursday and runs through Saturday.
Amy Gleave, who directs Utah Tech Entertainment Alliance including its Fusion dance team was among university staff and students who were still stirring late into the night Tuesday and into Wednesday working on the Utah Tech tree.
Gleave said while many use Thanksgiving to mark the start of the holiday season, it wasn’t too early for Christmas.
“It's never too early for Christmas,” Gleave said. “Since Halloween's over, I think we're ready.”
There are 59 handcrafted trees and 75 wreaths that are not only there to be looked at, but purchased. Along with a holiday boutique, baked goods and treats is a bombardment of holiday mirth on stage. It’s similar to Intermountain’s Festival of Trees that raises funds for Primary Children’s Hospital up north, though the Jubilee came first.
But Loriana Decrescenzo, who directs the Intermountain Health Foundation’s desert region, wasn’t taking bragging rights.
“Well, we're all one big family at Intermountain Health, so there's not a competition between between Jubilee of Trees and our friends up north who do the beautiful Festival of Trees,” she said.
Down south, the holiday event is devoted to raising money for continued improvements to cancer treatments at St. George Regional Hospital.
Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma. It's a bone cancer” 22-year-old Autum Rasmussen of St. George said. “As of two months ago, I'm in remission, so I rang that bell and I'm here to share my story to help others.”
Rasmussen was among cancer survivors and their families who did elf-like work to set up the holiday displays.
“The thing I love is each tree brings out a different emotion. You have a Utah Tech tree and it brings out the college and fun life. Then you also have Christ-centered trees that bring out religious and spiritual experience within you,” she said. “And then you have a couple of trees donated to specific cancer patients that bring out a more raw emotion.”
Rasmussen is biased about one tree, that fellow St. Georgian Simca Reid designed in her honor.
“The first thought that came to mind when I thought of Autum was, bloom where you're planted,” Reid said. “ I did some research and I came across a flower called a coneflower that can grow in the hot desert sun, but it can also bloom in the snow. The beautiful thing about the coneflower is that its petals drip down and it has a beautiful cone head that shines brightly just like our beautiful Autum.”
After Saturday night, the Jubilee will be over and these trees will be off to various homes where they'll have a couple presents under them on Christmas morning.
