St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church won the Golf Mill Shopping Center’s annual Festival of Trees contest for the second year in a row.
For the past five years, organizations from across the Niles area have decorated Christmas trees and competed to see which tree gets the most votes. The trees are placed in the center of Golf Mill Mall, near the food court. The votes are counted based on food donations and online votes.
Aside from St. Matthew’s, this year’s participants included the Brunswick Zone bowling alley, Golf Mill Barbershop, Maine Township Youth Services, Niles Police Department, Niles Public Library, and St. John Lutheran Church. The St. Matthew’s Christmas tree received a total of 784 votes.
The church has won a total of three times, but this was the first time it won two years in a row.
As the result of this year’s festival, Golf Mill Mall was able to collect 1,632 food items. The items were donated to the Maine Township Emergency Food Pantry.
The pantry is located in the Maine Township Hall’s basement. It is open to all Maine Township residents on Tuesdays and Fridays, between 1 and 4 p.m. Donations can be dropped off at the Township Hall on weekdays, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
St Matthew’s was presented prizes – a plaque and $100 Sears gift card – during a short ceremony that took place on Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 3 p.m.
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This was the first Festival of Trees to take place since Sterling Organization LLC of Palm Beach, Florida, bought the shopping center. In a statement to the press, Angela Moreno, Golf Mill’s marketing and events manager, said that the shopping center was happy with how this year’s festival turned out.
“We would like to thank all of our participants,” she said. “[We would like to thank] Sears for donating a $100 gift card and all of our shoppers that gave so generously to help feed families in need this holiday season.”