Community Corner

Creativity Fuels Festival of Trees

Kennedy Krieger's annual fundraiser is scheduled to begin Nov. 29 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds.

Sandra Parobeck was always impressed with the creativity on display at the Festival of Trees. So A few years ago she and co-worker at Timonium based Weil, Akman, Baylin and Coleman P.A. thought that it would be a good team building exercise for the office to participate. 

That first year the company contributed a two-foot Christmas tree with a Maryland tourism theme. Four years later the company is still participating, and this year employees are decorating a seven-foot tree with a sweets theme. 

"It’s incredible the imagination that you see in these trees," Parobeck said.

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This year the festival, an annual Kennedy Krieger Institute fundraiser, will return to the Maryland State Fairgrounds on Nov. 29, and will run through Dec. 1. The event will feature 600 decorated trees, wreaths and gingerbread houses, according to a news release.  

The event costs $13 for adults, $7 for children between the ages of 12 and 5 and is free for children under 4-years-old. The festival will also feature performances by the children’s rock band Milkshake, the raffling of a Disney vacation including airfare and holiday story reading.

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Festival of Trees raised $1.1 million last year for Kennedy Krieger, which helps children with developmental issues.  

"Festival of Trees is Kennedy Krieger Institute’s largest annual fundraiser. Proceeds from this event help make possible the important patient care, research,  special education and community programs that we provide for children both locally and across the nation," Lainy LeBow-Sachs, executive vice president of External Relations at Kennedy Krieger Institute, said in an emailed statement. 

As for Parobeck, she’s again looking forward to all the creativity inspired by charity.

"Your imagination is the limit," she said. 


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