PORT ANGELES — Sherry Phillips hugged a woman who broke into tears as she talked of the tree she was decorating to honor her late father, Chris Morganroth III, who had died only the Tuesday before.
“You asked me why I do this,” Phillips said over her shoulder to a reporter standing nearby. “This is why.”
Many of the lavishly decorated holiday trees on display at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles, during the Festival of Trees this weekend are personal statements by their designers.
They honor special people, events and cherished aspects of the season, said Phillips, who has created a tree for every one of the festival’s 34 years and has served as design chair for 20 years.
Priscilla Lorentzen’s tree, Woodland Winter Wonderland, No. 26, is only one of those with personal meaning.
She designed it in memory of a highly respected and beloved Quileute elder who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 89. His service will be at 11 a.m. Dec. 7 at the Akalat Gymnasium in La Push, with a celebration of life to follow.
This tree and 50 others designed by local people for this year’s Festival of Trees will be on view during Family Days today from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Attendees will be able to view the trees, purchase raffle tickets, take photos with Santa and hear entertainment. General admission is $7, with children under 12 admitted free.
Results of Friday night’s Festival of Trees Gala, when trees were to be auctioned, were after press time and will be published later.
The annual festival is organized by the Olympic Medical Center Foundation, which donates proceeds to the hospital.
On Monday at Vern Burton, Phillips, 82, bounced from decorating her own tree, Twelve Days of Christmas, No. 3, to helping others with answers to questions, encouragement and praise.
“There are a lot of issues, a lot of fires to be put out,” she said. “I told the designers, ‘Don’t worry about interrupting me.’”
Phillips was one of the first to create a designer tree for the festival. Longtime hospital supporter Rand Thomas called her before the first event 34 years ago.
“He knew I decorated for every holiday. He said, ‘We’re doing Festival of Trees and you’re doing one,’” Phillips said.
That first festival, there were no meetings, no directions, no planning.
“We just went and did it by the skin of our teeth,” said Phillips, who continued to contribute a tree each year thereafter.
Twenty years ago, at the urging of Foundation Executive Director Bruce Skinner, Phillips also took on overseeing organization for the designers as chair of that committee. In 2022, her work was recognized when the foundation presented her with the Littlejohn Award for outstanding contributions to health care and the community.
A cheerful and energetic presence among the other designers, Phillips doesn’t make her responsibilities seem like work.
“I love it,” said Phillips, a lifelong artist in oils, silk painting, tole painting and other forms. “I’ve always loved decorating. Even when I was a kid, I decorated my room for holidays.”
Her family — some of whom were decorating their own trees on Monday — is very supportive, she said. During preparations for the 2023 Festival of Trees, she was recovering from cellulitis, and she did her job in a wheelchair and with a laser pointer.
“My family was taking care of me,” said Phillips, who with her husband Bob has had two children and seven grandchildren.
That festival wasn’t the hardest to organize, she said. The most difficult was right after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Designing was done elsewhere, but the trees were auctioned at the Vern Burton center and all the designers wore masks.
“That was the most challenging year,” she said.
Since Phillips began, the festival has blossomed, with designers and others making a holiday wonderland out of the Vern Burton gym.
“This will be my 34th year and I am still bowled over when I see how it’s been transformed,” Phillips said.
She has worked with many of the designers for years.
“They are a wonderful group of people,” she said.
The magic of the transformation and the relationships she has forged with other designers keep her coming back.
For more about Festival of Trees, see the OMC Foundation website at https://www.omhf.org or check the special Festival of Trees advertising section published by the Peninsula Daily News, which contains details on each of the trees.
Participants also may vote for their favorite tree during a contest period that ends Dec. 25 at www.peninsuladailynews.com. A winner will receive two tickets to all of the 2025 Festival of Trees events.
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Leah Leach is a former executive editor for Peninsula Daily News.
