Festival of Trees, the annual Primary Children's Hospital fundraiser, generates a pair of heartwarming holiday stories

The Festival of Trees — the annual collection of elaborately decorated Christmas trees, auctioned off as a fundraiser for Primary Children’s Hospital — was an online-only affair for the second year running, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it still generated a couple of heartwarming stories.

• My Salt Lake Tribune colleague, photographer Francisco Kjolseth, interviewed Patti Peterson, a longtime volunteer for the event. She lives in Las Vegas, so she usually creates her goods from a distance. She got involved with the festival while she was receiving treatment at Salt Lake City’s Huntsman Cancer Institute. Peterson expects her “cancer journey” will be ending soon, and she wanted to see the event in person once before she dies.

• One of the decorated trees, made by volunteers at the Intermountain Foundation in honor of a three-year-old girl who died from cancer at Primary Children’s, set a record with a $50,000 bid.