It takes a village to raise a Festival of Trees

From left, Bud Carlson Academy social studies teacher Dylan Dowe, sophomore Josh Aube, junior Noah Lozly and Counselor Lilly Laganiere (Rochester Voice photo)

ROCHESTER - As they have for nearly a decade, Studley's Flower Gardens will host this weekend's Festival of Trees, a fund-raising event that benefits Rochester Main Street, the downtown nonprofit whose mission is to make the city's downtown more attractive and engaging.
"The Festival of Trees is a really fun community event," said Molly Meulenbrook of Studley's Flower Gardens, one of the city's longest-running businesses that was founded in 1928. "So many come out and look forward to it every year."

On Tuesday students from the Bud Carlson Academy were on hand at Studley's, volunteering time from their busy school day to help set up some of the 30 to 40 trees that will be featured during the Friday and Saturday festival.
The festival works like this. On Friday from 6-8 p.m. folks pay $5 for admission and can get five raffle tickets that they can use for chances to win one of the beautifully decorated trees. The trees are trimmed with gorgeous decorations and often with high-value gift cards, which can run into the hundreds of dollars.
Rochester Main Street President Jeffrey Bisson said folks can buy extra raffle tickets for a dollar apiece or 25 tickets for $20.
"This is our primary fund-raiser for the year, so we really look forward to it," Bisson said on Tuesday.
The festival continues with more viewing of the trees on Saturday from noon-5 p.m., with a special visit from Santa from 1-3 p.m. and a special concert from the Granite State Choral Society from 3-5 p.m.
Shortly after the GSCS concert is finished the winners will be picked. They will then be contacted so they can come and pick up their trees on Sunday.
"This event gets a lot of people into the downtown that might not come down here often, and it's fun seeing all the people it does bring in," Meulenbrook said.
Admission to the event for children is free.
The weekend of Christmas-themed events kicks off Friday with the tree lighting in Central Square at 5:30 p.m. The city's Christmas Parade begins at 3 p.m. on Sunday.