Decades of Festive Spirit and Healthcare Impact: The Festival of Trees Legacy
One of Edmonton’s longest-running festivals, the Festival of Trees has been a key fundraiser for the University Hospital Foundation (UHF) since 1985. Over the years, and thanks to the tireless work of volunteers, the event has evolved and changed in response to the changing landscape of philanthropic fundraising. At its heart, it retains the things that have made it amazing from the start — family, friends and fun. In its 38-year history, the Festival has gone from 15 trees set up in the University of Alberta Hospital lobby to a full-blown holiday mainstay and a major fundraiser for the University Hospital Foundation.
Check out some of Festival of Tree’s recent history and the fantastic causes you helped us support:
- Back in person and re-imagined, the 2022 Festival of Trees raised significant funding towards creating the Neurological Rehabilitation Innovation Centre, an advanced research hub and state-of-the-art care centre.
- In 2021, the community’s generosity enabled the UHF to surpass its $1 million fundraising goal, raising $1.75 million for West Edmonton Kidney Care, which enhances the quality of life for Albertans grappling with end-stage kidney disease.
- Challenges caused by the pandemic in 2020 saw the introduction of a smaller, virtual event. The Festival of Trees may not have looked the same but the UHF saw a historic high in gift volumes that helped the UHF distribute $16 million to critical areas of patient care and research at the University of Alberta Hospital, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and the Kaye Edmonton Clinic.
- In 2019, the festival raised $1.87 million in support of bringing osseointegration to the University of Alberta Hospital, making it the first hospital in western Canada to provide the procedure, which offers a better quality of life and improved function and mobility to people who have had an amputation.
- In 2018, the Festival of Trees tapped into the generosity of the community to raise over $4 million towards equipment for the Brain Centre, including a new CT Scanner and state-of-the-art surgical microscope for the Dan & Bunny Widney Intraoperative MRI Suite.
- The 2017 Festival of Trees raised nearly $1 million to improve emergency care by supporting the development of a newer, bigger and more accessible Rapid Transfer Unit. Expanding the Rapid Transfer Unit allows patients waiting for admittance at the University Hospital of Alberta to rest in a quiet, healing environment and begin their specialized treatment until an inpatient bed becomes available.
Previous causes supported by the Festival of Trees included bringing Canada’s first Stroke Ambulance to Edmonton; adding Gamma Knife, the most advanced form of noninvasive brain surgery, to the Brain Centre at the University of Alberta Hospital; expanding the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute; and giving trauma and complex surgery teams the specialized equipment and technology they need to save more lives.
Lastly and most recently, the 2023 Festival of Trees, presented by Landmark Homes, reached its $2.4 million goal, all thanks to the thousands of Edmontonians who supported the Festival. The UHF sought to raise funds to support not one but two areas of innovation at the University of Alberta Hospital. The new, state-of-the-art Simulation (SIM) Lab will allow healthcare teams to practice, refine and practice again, every step of every procedure and interaction under every condition. The Fourth Floor Atrium remodel will create an inclusive space of peace and comfort for patients, family members, staff and physicians, allowing them to step away from the high-intensity hospital environment.
The UHF couldn’t be more proud of the Festival of Trees, the joy it brings to Albertans and the good it does for patients who come from all over the world to be treated at the University of Alberta Hospital.