front&center Kelly Rickard

TRI-LAKES AREA — After a decade and a half of dedication and hard work for a worthy cause, Kelly Rickard of Benton thought it was time to take a less active role in one of Arkansas’ leading fundraisers and most colorful holiday celebrations.

So, of course, this year she volunteered with a friend to lead the philanthropic event again.

Rickard and Sonia Worsham of Sherwood are cochairs for the Festival of Trees, a sparkling three-day Yuletide event that benefits the Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute, created and arranged by volunteers of the CARTI Foundation Auxiliary.

Rickard has been associated with the Festival of Trees for 15 years, holding practically every job in the festival in that time.

“My term on the board of directors was ending and I was stepping down,” Rickard said. “Then it looked like someone was not going to be able to chair the event this year and so I talked with Sonia and we said, ‘I’ll do it if you do it,’ and we offered to step in and they accepted.”

They already knew they could work together for the event. They had done it before, in 1999. Ten yearsago, Worsham and her husband served as chairs, and Rickard, as a co-chair, worked alongside them.

“Being the co-chair then really meant you were just warming up to be the chair the next year,” Rickard said.

Even when the two women teamed up for Festival of Trees 10 years ago, Rickard was a veteran volunteer and supporter for CARTI and their care for cancer patients.

“Fifteen years ago I was working for a company where a co-worker’s child was treated by CARTI,” she said. “They were very impressed at the way they treated and cared for the child.”

The company sponsored a tree, and because she had a background in flower arranging and design, they asked her to decorate it.

“It was the first time I had been, and it was quite an experience,” Rickard said. “It was amazing to see the chaos at the beginning with all the trees and decorations and then to see how it all came together.”

The next year she was back decorating another tree, and she chaired a committee in the auxiliary, where she eventually became president.

All the Rickard family is involved. In 2007, Rickard’s daughter Heather Vaughan served as the festival chair. They are the first and only mother and daughter chairs in the event’s history. Vaughan has been involved with the festival since high school and this year serves as the co-chair for the festival’s Holiday Luncheon and Fashion Show.

Chairing the Festival of Trees takes the entire year. Just weeks after Christmas auxiliary members go to a decoration market event and ship for the coming year.

“We do 15 to 20 trees a year, and they are sponsored by people and businesses,” Rickard said. “As the time gets closer, 30 or so volunteers have jobs ranging from opening the packaging and placing hooks on the decorations, setting up the artificial trees and fluffing them out to placing the decorations on the trees.

The chair, or this year, the chairs, decide on a theme and find ornaments that bring out that theme.

“This year the theme is Christmas Carols, and each tree is named after a famous carol,” Rickard said.

However, the festival is much more than decorating trees. There are six events in three days.

The CARTI Auxiliary Festival of Trees opens Thursday, Dec. 3, at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, inviting everyone to a “Stroll through the forest.” The first day is Senior Day with visitors 55 or older admitted free. Tickets for younger visitors and for the next two days are $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and younger.

Other events include the Sugar Plum Ball for little girls and their Prince Charmings.

“Those are usually their fathers or grandfathers,” Rickard said.

The fashion show and luncheon are held on Friday, Dec. 4, and a special after-dark event Friday evening features live music and holiday goodies prepared by restaurants from across central Arkansas.

Saturday begins with Breakfast with Santa and ends with the annual Tux ’n Trees, a blacktie gala honoring Arkansas first lady Ginger Beebe.

Throughout the three-day event, there is a silent auction for the decorated trees.

Rickard said the trees could bring in $2,500 or more.

“On the Monday after the gala, the trees are wrapped, fully decorated and transported to the homes of the winning bidder,” Rickard said. “Then a team comes in to unwrap and fluff the tree again. Nothing could be easier.”

The entire Festival of trees can raise as much as $400,000 for CARTI and its facilities in central Arkansas.

Rickard loves Christmas with all the trimmings. Her Hot Springs house has been decorated for Christmas since the weekof Halloween and features seven decorated trees. Soon she will decorate their Benton home, which will reflect her love of the season. The North Little Rock native has lived in Benton for almost 33 years.

Rickard admits playing with Christmas paraphernalia is one reason she became involved in the auxiliary, but it soon became much more.

“It was probably an outlet for the decorating and an excuse to do Christmas all year,” she said. “But once I got involved, I was asking what I could do to help CARTI with its mission of helping cancer patients.”

Rickard said the desire to give is a strong motivation that she passed along to her daughters.

“I think you should always try to give something back and help those less fortunate then yourself,” Rickard said. “From an early age my daughters wanted to go to the Salvation Army Christmas trees. We went to the mall and picked a name and then would go shopping for them.”

For Kelly Rickard, even with all the fun of the Festival of Trees, she never loses sight of why she and the volunteers dedicate their time and work on behalf of CARTI and the patients and families they serve.

- wbryan@ arkansasonline.commatter of factBirthday: March 21 Occupation: Professional volunteer Family includes: Husband, Curtis, daughters Heather and Courtney Hobbies: Sewing, crocheting and I love to cook When I was young, I wanted to: Be a home economics teacher Most people do not know that I: Love to go fishing I cannot live without: My family and friends

Tri-Lakes, Pages 142 on 11/22/2009

Print Headline: front&center Kelly Rickard