Karen Henson of Maumelle has her eye on one of the silent-auction items for the CARTI Auxiliary Festival of Trees.
It’s one of the hazards of being co-chairwoman of the event.
Henson, 57, and her daughter, Robyn Barton, 36, also of Maumelle, are overseeing the committee to gather items for the silent auction. Four events are scheduled for Nov. 15-18 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
“[Festival of Trees is] a big event, and 100 percent of the proceeds go to the patient fund, which is why we are happy to help with it,” Henson said. CARTI is a not-for-profit cancer-care facility with chemotherapy and radiation locations throughout Arkansas.
Henson, assistant chief for human resources with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said she gets satisfaction from volunteering. She credits her aunt Shelia Vaught of Little Rock for inspiring her, aka recruiting her.
“Most of my volunteer work has been Aunt Shelia saying, ‘I need you to help me with something,’” Henson said.
Vaught is co-chairwoman of the entire Festival of Trees this year, so she called Henson, who then drafted her daughter.
“Aunt Shelia is a huge volunteer — CARTI, Susan
G. Komen, Ronald McDonald House,” Henson said. Vaught is also a member of the University of Central Arkansas Board of Trustees.
Vaught said there’s a reason she enlists Henson’s help.
“She’s probably one of the most dependable and hardworking people I’ve ever met in my life,” Vaught said, and not just because Henson is her relative.
“She’s very organized and has a loving and caring heart,” Vaught said. “She works on every project I get her into, which is a lot.”
Henson said she volunteered for CARTI several years ago, too.
“It was handing out free passes to senior citizens, and I drafted a friend — I like to draft people to help me. Some people didn’t like it if you asked them if they were 55 and older to give them a free pass,” she said, laughing. Henson said she and her friend stopped asking and just started announcing free passes were available to anyone 55 or older.
Henson said she has a personal connection with CARTI because her brother-in-law received radiation for cancer 14 years ago at CARTI. Her husband’s cousin is a six-year breast-cancer survivor.
The Festival of Trees silent auction will begin Nov. 15, which is the first evening event, the Sugar Plum Ball. The celebrations will continue through the culminating gala, Tux ‘N Trees, on Nov. 18. The formal event includes dinner, dancing and decorated Christmas trees, which will be included in the silent auction, Henson said.
“The trees are just beautiful. Typically, the trees are sponsored by businesses. The Lego movie was popular, so one may be decorated in a Lego theme, or Razorbacks or snowmen,” for example, she said.
Henson said the silent auction has an eclectic list of items so far, including jewelry, children’s birthday-party packages, artwork and more.
“The nice thing about the auction is, it’s a telephone app,” she said. Guests who attend at least one of the events during the Festival of Trees can sign up to be a bidder with the app. “It will notify you if someone has bid [higher than] you, and you can bid again. You don’t just have to be at the event.”
It also prevents a bidder from having to “hover around” the item to make sure he doesn’t get outbid.
“I’ve done this, too, by the way,” she said of hovering to protect a bid. Last year at the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame banquet, Henson said, she spent most of her time watching the bids on jewelry to make sure she didn’t get outbid. “I got three Sissy’s Log Cabin items,” she said, and she gave one to her daughter.
Henson has her eye on something this year, too.
“I really like this wooden bowl, just because it was crafted by someone I know, Bobby Land of the Scott area. I go to church with him,” Henson said. “People who have a real craft like that, a talent, always amaze me. I’m good with numbers, but with crafts, not so much.”
Henson grew up in North Little Rock, married Robert and moved to Salem, north of Benton, when their daughter was in kindergarten, and they lived there almost 25 years. Henson said she took some college classes at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in Benton at the same time her daughter was attending the school, Henson said.
She worked in human resources for the Department of Human Services and the Department of Finance and Administration; then she joined her husband for seven or eight years to help in his upholstery business.
“My husband — he’s always done upholstery. That’s his whole career, vocation, and he had started a business, and it got to the point where he needed my assistance. I did more the administrative stuff. I do know how to sew, but my husband can out-sew me; his skills amaze me,” she said.
Now he works for Falcon Jet doing upholstery for the planes’ seats.
Henson has worked the past 16 years for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. She also volunteers with several groups and has served as treasurer the past decade for All Souls Interdenominational Church in Scott, which her husband’s grandparents attend, as well as the Vaughts. Henson also teaches an adult Sunday School class at the church.
“Right now, I’m on the board for a nonprofit called Scott Connections, which supports the Scott Plantation Settlement out in Scott. It’s turn-of-the-century, is what we’re trying to re-create.”
She said 18 or 19 historic buildings have been moved to the settlement, including a train depot, a church, a one-room schoolhouse and an old medical clinic, which she described as “kind of scary-looking, actually. We’re so blessed with the advances we have.”
“School groups come out there,” she said.
Henson said the Festival of Trees volunteer position is a big one, which is why she enlisted the help of her daughter. She said Barton volunteers as silent-auction chairwoman for the Maumelle Charter School Fall Fest, too.
“I said you have experience,” Henson said.
Barton said she and her mother have worked on other silent auctions together, “but this is certainly the largest scale.”
“It’s going great. People hear CARTI, and they’re just happy to help out, and they’re just thankful you asked,” Barton said.
“One of my best friends is a breast-cancer survivor and has been going through treatment for a year, … and another best friend, her mother received treatment at CARTI,” Barton said.
She said helping an organization such as CARTI and getting to spend time with her mother made volunteering for the Festival of Trees an easy decision.
Barton said her mother set a good example for her growing up, “and I try to do the same thing for my kids.
“She has a really generous heart. … Sometimes I tell her she overtaxes herself. She’s just a great example. If she sees a need, she just fills the need, and she’s just always willing to give.”
Henson said her plan is to retire — in five years, 11 months and 10 days — and travel the United States with her husband.
And keep volunteering when Aunt Shelia calls.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.