A Christmas tree is a symbol of the season, but it also can carry additional messages.
Such is the case with the seven trees that are part of the second annual Meeker County Museum Christmas Tree Village. Each of the trees is decorated to represent a nonprofit organization in Meeker County.
Bayley Schluter, executive director of the GAR Hall, said her museum team worked hard this year to recruit nonprofit organizations to participate, and it paid off as participants in the the Christmas Tree Village grew from three last year to seven this year.
”So I’m happy. They’ve all been decorated by Meeker County non-profits or community organizations," Schluter said.
The organizations that delivered a decorated Christmas tree to the museum were Meeker County 4-H, Litchfield Area Mentorship Program, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, Girl Scout Troops of Litchfield, Ecumen of Litchfield, Litchfield Downtown Council and Broken Roads Ranch.
The event serves as a fundraiser, with museum visitors asked to vote for their favorite tree, and the tree that receives the most votes winning a percentage of the museum’s admissions for January.
“It’s a way to bring people into the museum during a slow season when it gets cold and kids are still in school,” Schluter said. “It’s also a way for us to partner with these organizations that we don’t normally get a chance to work with — to get to know each other — for me to get to know their staff.”
This event is also an opportunity for participating organizations and community businesses to brainstorm on future projects, Schluter said.
“And it’s a great way to decorate our building. You fill it with trees that are all unique, that are all fun,” she said. “About half of them are decorated by kids, which is really cool. It’s just a fun thing that I thought it would be a good way to bring people in the building to form more connections with the other non-profits.”
