No more large-group festivities, but Holly Fest still plans to delight those in LS
This year’s Holly Festival is still on — but it’s going to be a completely different experience. The fundraiser, now in its 27th year, supports both Lee’s Summit CARES and the DARE program for the Lee’s Summit schools.
Normally, the event includes a craft fair with about 100 vendors, a bake sale and even food trucks in addition to an auction. In transitioning to an online venue instead of Bernard Campbell Middle School, the festival has had to shed everything but the auction.
That auction will take place from Nov. 7 to Nov. 14. Two of the highlights will be an oil painting by local artist Tina Garrett and a Super Bowl football signed by Chiefs players. The painting is valued at $1,000, according to Susan Coffman, program coordinator for Lee’s Summit CARES.
Other donated items include baskets donated by the PTAs of each elementary school and a year’s worth of pizza.
Normally, the festival raises about $15,000, much of that through fees for vendors’ booths. At $90 per booth with 80 to 100 vendors, it’s a significant amount. The change in venue — and lack of booth fees — means they’re not expecting to raise quite as much.
“It’s still important to have some sort of fundraiser and continue raising that money this year,” said Rachel Segobia, director of Lee’s Summit CARES.
Some of the items in the auction have been completely donated, while others will see a portion of the sale price go to the vendor.
To make everything run online, they had to purchase $1,000 of software, and Coffman herself had a learning curve in building the corresponding website. She’s hoping to get 150 items to put up for auction.
“Once I learned what I was supposed to do, it’s been fairly easy to manage,” Coffman said.
She hopes to continue to have an online auction component when the festival returns to its normal structure in the future.
Although the group has the transition under control, it’s not the way they’d like to have the Holly Festival.
“(It) really pulls together a lot of people around the community to support a cause. It’s been hard to see that have to go online,” Segobia said. “Getting people together in person is so much fun and an important part of the work we do at the coalition. I guess it’s a necessary change, but it’s a hard one.”
Lee’s Summit CARES focuses on managing risky behaviors in young people. That can mean drug, alcohol and e-cigarette prevention, mental health wellness, bullying prevention and more. Money from the Holly Festival helps support the organization’s operations costs which aren’t covered by grants.
The funds that go to the DARE program help the orgranization purchase T-shirts for all of the program’s graduates.
“That may seem kind of like a frivolous thing, but when you have a community like ours, where we have people that have a lot of money and (other) people that don’t — all on one day, they all look alike,” Coffman said. “And when I’ve done surveys to the group of those kids, they said what an important day that was to be able to wear not just the same thing as everybody else but to remember the DARE program as they graduated.”
There will be a link to the auction at lscares.org/holly-festival.html. The auction runs from 6:30 a.m. Nov. 7 to 2:30 p.m. Nov. 14. Items from out-of-town vendors will get shipped; purchases from local vendors will be available for pick-up at Flooring and More at 1707 NE Rice Road.