Dear Friends and Neighbors,
On behalf of the Reading Education Foundation (REF), we would like to thank you for making this year’s Festival of Trees the best one yet! REF raised over $19,000 this year because of the generosity of our tree donors, silent auction donors, volunteers and festival guests. We are so grateful to each and every one of you for your support of REF, which helps us to bring innovation and excellence to the eight Reading public schools.
We would like to thank our many tree donors without whom we could not have created such a magical festival. Many brought their talent and creativity to the festival this year: Amy Hennessy, The Bove Family, The Gaudreault Family, Girl Scout Troop 71302, Hannah Voegelin & Family, The Hilliard Family, J & B Crosby, Lee Kimball with the DKJ Foundation, Mary Gould and the Peirce Family donated their creativity to our festival to great effect! Congratulations to you all for your wonderful trees!
As usual, the festival boasted many trees from local businesses. This year’s support was better than ever! A hearty thanks to Aine's Boutique, Alive And Well Chiropractic, Brissonté, Century 21 Northshore, Connect The Tots, Creative Arts, Doherty Barile Family Funeral Home, Douglass, Edgerley & Bessom, Elite Freestyle Karate/ Fitness, The Florist at Eric’s, Everything But The Dog, Gardens By Demetra, Longwood Place, Mahoney’s Garden Center, Northeast Ballet, Reading Cooperative Bank, RMLD, Sanborn Place, Sartell Electric, and Timothy J Kelley, Attorney At Law.
Our schools turned out some fantastic trees as well. Our gratitude to: the PTOs at Barrows, Birch Meadow, Killam, Wood End and RMHS; Birch Meadow and Joshua Eatons’ Student Councils; Coolidge’s many clubs—Two Advisories, Art Club, Drama, Library Homerooms, Mentor Program, and Project Adventure; Joshua Eaton’s 3rd Grade Lego Engineers; Wood End; Parker for donating trees from the ABC 8th Grade, Art Department, Leadership & Service, Music Department and their Study Skills Department; and to RMHS for donating trees from the Administration, Art Club, Choral Department, Class of 2015, Class of 2014, Drama Club, PSST, Gay Straight Alliance, Interact Club and World of Difference! Thank you to all for your support!
We have wonderful organizations in town that also contributed, and we take our hats off to them, including: Burbank YMCA, Emarc, Reading Garden Club, Reading Rotary, Reading School Committee, Reading School Nutrition Dept, St. Agnes Parish and the Young Women’s League Of Reading.
Thank you also to our silent auction donors. We are grateful to so many friends of REF for their generous donations, including: RMHS Band Parents Organization, the Rohmer- Drake Family, the Kelley Family, Jacquie Carson & Lori Foley, Alan Gilburg, the Malone Family, Robyn Parker, The Hollenbeck Family, The Downey Family, Phyllis Mercurio, and Pat Connors. We had many local businesses contributing to the silent auction including: Brissonte, Green Tomato, Jenny Boston, Laschis Hair Salon and Day Spa, Lilybug Studio, Northern Bank, Reading Butcher, Reading Liquors, Sanborn Place, Home Care & Day Services, Sense of Wonder, Simms Jewelers, Vitality Wellness Day Spa, Michael Boschetti, DMD, RiteAid, Elite Freestyle Karate and the Hitching Post, who also helped us sell our Ipad Raffle tickets. Thank you all so much!
A big round of applause to our entertainment—we enjoyed music by KidSing, Reading Middle School Select Chorus, RMHS Chorus, Creative Arts student performers, Taylor Hilliard, Amy Colby, and Brian James; and face painting by Creative Arts.
And a hearty thanks to Bertucci’s for their delicious pizza, Woburn Showcase Cinema for the popcorn, Sartell Electric who lights everything up, Terry Weir whose music puts us in a festive mood, and the Stoneham 877 Self Storage who stores our wares throughout the year. We are grateful for your generosity!
We could not have managed welcoming over 1,800 guests without the help of the many volunteers who greeted, sold tickets, helped with food, made the winner phone calls, loaded in and loaded out, put up signs, etcetera! Your names are too many to list, but we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Finally a big thank you to all of Reading for the generosity you offer REF and our Festival of Trees. Because of you, we are closer to our goal of funding every deserving grant that brings innovation and excellence to the eight Reading public schools. This year we have received over $73,000 in grant requests, up from $63,000 last year! With your support we hope to increase our ability to fund all deserving grants.
If you are interested in further supporting REF, please answer our annual fund drive before the end of 2012! Your donation to REF is fully tax deductible and donations can be made via snail mail (P.O. Box 265, Reading MA) or on our website at www.ReadingEF.org.
Our next community fundraiser is our Imagination Celebration to be held May 4, 2013. Mark your calendars now!
Happy Holidays,
Reading Education Foundation Board of Directors
REF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, volunteer-run, fundraising organization dedicated to supporting the whole child, and every child in Reading Massachusetts. Contact us at info@readingef.org to learn more.
