This year’s Festival of Trees was a luminous event of festive decoration, fine wines and fund raising. This year, its 20th anniversary, had been advertised as extra special. It lived up to this promise with the presence of celebrity auctioneer April Brown and high-class auction items, including a plane tour and wine tasting.

Over all this made it a fine, and lucrative, evening. Although final figures are not yet available, Festival Chairman Pat Nieman says she feels it was the third-best year ever. In a 20-year career, and in light of the recession, CATS has good reason to feel very good about this year’s fund-raiser. So far, the figure raised is $58,650.