The trees are decorated… the wreaths are hung…It’s time for Soroptimist International of the Olympic Rain Forest’s annual Festival of Trees, “Believe in the Magic of Christmas.” Because of COVID-19, this year’s event will once again be an ONLINE Facebook auction at Festival of Trees (SIORF Forks, WA). It will run from Friday, Dec. 3 through Sunday, Dec. 5. There will be no open house, but wreaths/trees will be on display in windows around town for a “Holiday Walk-About.” This is the annual fundraiser for Soroptimist International of the Olympic Rain Forest (SIORF).

Start your walk-about at First Federal where you will find tree #5 sponsored by Engeseth Logging and decorated by The Engeseth Family. Downtown you will find tree #3 at Forks Avenue Real Estate, sponsored by Dan Kousbaugh and decorated by Tabitha Gaydeski. Check out Dana’s Barbershop for two trees: Tree #1, sponsored by the Forks Forum/Peninsula Daily News and decorated by Christi Baron and tree #7, sponsored by Miller Tree Inn and decorated by Starla Damon. Two more trees are located next door at Farmer’s Insurance: Tree #6 sponsored by Melvin Fraker and decorated by Pam Nelson, Punki Goakey, and Sharla Fraker, and the SIORF raffle tree. Forks Outfitters is home to tree #4 sponsored and decorated by Forks Outfitters. Umpqua Bank is displaying tree #2 sponsored by D&K BBQ and decorated by Jeanna Snell. Thirty-seven wreaths are also on display around town. They will be showcased in the windows of Chinook Pharmacy, Sasquatch the Legend store, the In Place, Forks Avenue Real Estate, Hoh Tribe, Westend Taproom Tip and Sip, The RAC, Pacific Inn Motel, Congregational Church, and Forks Outfitters.

Even in a pandemic, SIORF continues doing great things in our community and the world for women and children. Some of the projects’ monies support are Foundation Awards and Scholarships, baby layettes for the Caring Place, hygiene kits for homeless and domestic abuse victims, cancer patient transportation, mammograms and heart tests, Forks Middle School student of the month/honor roll breakfasts/behavior interventions and comfort kits to children in foster care.

Festival of Trees

2021 Auction Guide

Items:

For this year’s auction, there will be seven Christmas Trees and 37 Wreaths available for auction. These items are displayed throughout our community for viewing! Take a walk around Forks and enjoy these great items in person or visit our Facebook auction page to view a picture of each individual item. Bidding starts Friday and will be closing on Sunday, Dec. 5.

Guides:

Items will be placed into “Guides”. There will be six total Guides, with one Christmas Tree and 6-8 wreaths per Guide. Each will be assigned a “Closing Time” in which we will begin closing items within that Guide. We will close Guides every 1/2 hour beginning with the items in Guide 1 at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 5, and ending with the items in Guide 6 at 3:30 p.m. All items, except trees, must be picked up by 6 p.m. at the Congregational Church. Trees will be delivered.

Bidding:

Placing a bid can work one of several ways. Please understand that this auction is NOT EXCLUSIVE to Facebook members. You will be able to bid whether they have Facebook or not. Read below on how this will happen.

Bidding will open when items are posted on the Facebook group page. Bidding will stay open until Sunday when Guides will close by their designated time slot. The assigned “Closing Time” begins a countdown on each item within that Unit. Each item will stay OPEN for bidding until there has been approximately 5 minutes of no new bids. Bids will be tracked in the comment section of each item. Please make sure you are commenting on the Item to place your bid, DO NOT comment on individual pictures to make a bid. We will need bids tracked in one location, which is done by commenting on the item. See below on how to post a bid! As always, please contact SIORF if you have questions on how to bid!

To place a bid using Facebook: Festival of Trees

(SIORF Forks, WA)

As stated above, items will be placed in Guides. There are a few ways to navigate through the Facebook page to view items.

Guide Tab:

Recommended Method. The first option would be to find the Guide tab within the Facebook group. On a CPU browser, this is located in the left-hand toolbar below the group name and Discussion tab. On a smartphone app, this is located below the group name and above the “post” section. Once you select the Unit Tab, you will be able to scroll through each Unit and item in numerical order. To view or post a bid, select the comment section under the item. Leave a comment with the Item# and the bid amount. Please make sure you did not select a picture to comment on, only the item.

To place a bid WITHOUT Facebook:

To place a bid without Facebook, please contact a member of the Soroptimist. The auction administrators will place the bid for you on Facebook. By placing your bid on the item this will express your interest in the item and will trigger a response on the day of bid closing. You will be contacted prior to the item closing to update you on the status of your bid and the item. You must be available by phone and/or email to stay active in the bidding on Saturday. Therefore you must provide SIORF with contact information when you provide a bid.

Soroptimist raffle tree and raffle baskets

The raffle tree this year is called “A Flash of Red”. It comes with a pair of Adirondack chairs made by OCC and other surprises.

There are also five raffle baskets: Relaxation, Winter Warmth, Sports, Arts and Crafts, and Meals and Goodies.

Tickets are $1/each and available at Second Chances, at the door of the Congregational church on Sunday, Dec. 5, or from any Soroptimist.