Wrangell Sentinel -

Volunteers were hard at work in the Nolan Center Nov. 26 preparing to bring a little holiday cheer into the community.

The annual Christmas Tree Lane display and Christmas tree auction opened Tuesday. About half the proceeds from the annual auction go to volunteer hospice care, organizers said, though it's up to community groups and individuals who sponsor individual trees to decide how much to give. Volunteers provide decorative sometimes-intricate trees typically built around a central theme. The themes range from holiday joviality, like the bear-themed tree submitted by a craft group meeting at the art gallery, to a tree decorated in pink, to a wreath decorated with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, to a tree designed specifically for birds.

"It's an outside tree," Jacquie Dozier said. "You put those guys outside on your outside tree and your birds'll be there, and that's neat."

The lane also includes a more plainly decorated tree consisting of paper doves with the names of people in special need.

Planning for the event starts the minute the previous year's auction closes, Dozier said.

"I know two groups that are already telling me what they're going to do for next year," she said. "You kind of plan through the year, pick up trees at garage sales or whatever."

Then in late November, typically after Thanksgiving, the trees begin to appear in the lobby of the Nolan Center. Individuals donate their time and decorating materials, and the display slowly grows.

"At the gallery downtown there's a group of women who go down and make baskets or materials," said Michael Bania, who helped with the group's bear-themed tree, replete with a teddy bear picnic arrangement. "We've already settled on a theme for next year."

Readers hoping to gain the inside scoop will have to wait another year, though, Bania said.

"I'm not going to tell you what it is," she said.

This year, Lane organizers could use a little extra holiday cheer from Sentinel readers. Because of a planned asbestos removal on the first floor of the old gym, and space constraints for the borough's parks and recreation department, the Lane will be without a temporary storage space when the display closes out its run this year, organizers said.

"From year-to-year, the stuff is stored," said Nolan Center director and lane volunteer Terri Henson. "The last few years, it's been up under the old gym. They're desperately looking for a dry place to store that would be free and help support hospice."

In the past, the materials have been stored in basements and other out-of-the-way places.

Anyone interested in providing help should call 874-2972 and speak to Dozier.

Bids for the silent auction close at 2 pm on Dec. 14.