Kherz’den Humphrey
Reporter
The 18th annual Festival of Wreaths took place on November 11th at the Elsie Plaster building at the Neosho campus. The event was from 4 p.m. and lasted until roughly 8 p.m.. Hosted by Jim Cullumber and the Crowder College Foundation. What began as holiday decor sales has now grown into both silent and live auctions as well as a few raffles. Hosted every year, the Festival of Wreaths is held to raise money for student scholarships.
Students who receive Foundation scholarships volunteer to work the event and help in all aspects. When the festival is over Crowder’s baseball team assists with taking items to cars and cleaning up the decorations. Crowder’s dining service, Great Western Dining, also helps with the event by catering many appetizers and providing drinks for the guests.
This year, due to Covid-19, the amount of donations were lower than previous years. The silent auction, which usually held around 600 items only had about 425. The live auction offered 30 items apart from 40 like past years.
Although Covid-18 did have a large impact on the amount of guests and donations, there was still a strong turn-out with many generous donors and supporters.
In the past, the Festival of Wreaths has raised between $80,000 to $120,000 for scholarships. This year $88,182 was raised, with $18,450 being sponsorships. The silent auction pulled in $19,013 and an additional $18,275 from the live auction.
The two raffles, Winner’s Choice and Best of Live raised $4,805 and $8,600. Lastly, during the live auction the ‘donate now paddle raise’ $17,020 was donated.
Even with Covid-19 still looming, the community still came together to donate and sponsor Crowder students.
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