Festival of Trees becomes a new holiday tradition for Sandy teen

This Christmas, Festival of Trees participant Severine Bateman, 13, wanted to give a special gift to benefit sick children receiving treatment at Primary Children’s Medical Center.

To help make this holiday season a little brighter, Severine decorated a 6-foot-tall artificial evergreen tree with more than 80 red, gold and silver ornaments and topped with an angel.

“It was really fun and [the tree] turned out better than I expected,” Severine said of the experience. “I had a great time.”

Severine, a Sandy resident, also dressed the tree with about 40 handmade origami cube ornaments filled with chocolate.

In the months before the holiday season, she worked hard at babysitting to earn the money to pay for the tree decorations and spent at least 40 hours folding the handmade ornaments.

The Festival of Trees was held this year from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy.

The tree was sold during the festival for an amount undisclosed to protect the privacy of the buyer.

One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to benefit the children served by Primary Children’s Medical Center, the only full-service children’s hospital in the Intermountain West.

Severine took a day off school to decorate and install the tree at the South Towne Expo Center on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

For her efforts, she received tickets to attend the festival with her family and friends.

Severine made a special point to take her neighbor, 4-year old Ethan Nighbur, to the festival to see the tree. She said her participation in the Festival of Trees this year was inspired by Ethan’s battle with cancer.

Severine also said she was so happy with her experience this year that she would give to the Festival of Trees again next year.

 “I think we’ll make it a tradition,” she said.