Festival of Trees Opens at Grand Traverse Mall to Raise Funds
A multi-day Festival of Trees has opened at Grand Traverse Mall, combining a holiday emporium, family activities and food tastings to raise money for the Zonta Club of Traverse City. The event brings local sponsors, vendors and holiday programming together while directing proceeds to the club’s work empowering women and girls in the community.
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The Festival of Trees opened this week at Grand Traverse Mall, presenting a seasonal shopping emporium, decorated trees supplied by local sponsors, and a slate of family-oriented activities aimed at both holiday shoppers and community supporters. Organizers scheduled a Foodie Friday tasting block from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and visits with Santa and Mrs. Claus on Sunday from noon to 3 p.m., positioning the festival as a community gathering point over multiple days.
Proceeds from the event are designated to support the Zonta Club of Traverse City, a local chapter of an international service organization that focuses on empowering women and girls through service and advocacy. The festival model—combining retail offerings, food sampling and family entertainment with fundraising—is a common approach for community nonprofits seeking broad public participation during the holiday season.
Local businesses and sponsors are visible contributors to the event, underwriting decorated trees and participating as vendors in the holiday emporium. That involvement provides small-business exposure during a peak shopping period while contributing to a charitable cause. The mall setting creates foot traffic that event organizers and sponsors hope will translate into both sales and donations.
For residents, the festival serves multiple local interests: it expands holiday shopping options, offers family entertainment in a centralized venue, and channels community philanthropy toward established nonprofit work in the county. The Zonta Club’s stated focus on empowering women and girls ties the event directly to local civic and social objectives, although public accountability and transparency around fundraising and program impact remain relevant for voters and donors who want assurance that proceeds are applied as intended.
Community fundraising events such as this also function as civic touchpoints, bringing volunteers, sponsors and donors into contact with nonprofit leaders and creating opportunities for civic engagement. Grand Traverse County residents who attend can observe how local institutions like service clubs operate, and weigh those observations against their own priorities for local social services and community investment.
As the festival continues through the weekend, organizers are offering routine holiday programming alongside fundraising activities intended to support the Zonta Club’s work in the region. The event underscores a familiar civic dynamic: collaboration between commercial venues, volunteer organizations and residents to finance local nonprofit activity during the holiday season.
