Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. celebrated the fifth annual ‘Holiday Trees & Gingerbread Houses in Kent Square,’ on Saturday Dec. 23. The trees and houses were on display in Kent Square, and voting had run for a month, with more than 350 votes cast.
Winning houses and trees were announced and awards were presented at the Free Family Film Fest at the Lyric Theatre featuring ‘The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe’.
More than 250 community members attended the event.
The Blacksburg Library’s book-themed tree won first place and the much-coveted “Soaring Eagle Award.”
“Created from books of course! Apparently the tree took hours of design work to ensure it worked,” a Downtown Blacksburg press release said.
Winning second prize was the Blacksburg Children’s Museum tree created as a project at the museum with assistance from many families.
Third prize was the tree decorated by Energy Check, created by Ed Tuchler and his team using recycled pallets to create a pallet tree decorated with repurposed light bulb-snowmen.
The trees will remain on display in Kent Square through Jan.4, 2018
The winners were chosen from among trees decorated by the Mount Tabor Ruritan Club, Pointe West Management, Kent Jewelers, Sundee Best Boutique, Sideline Orthopedics, Downtown Blacksburg, Inc., Bookholders, Energy Check, YMCA at VT, Habitat for Humanity Restore, Blacksburg Library, Ozmo, Tuck Chiropractic, Community Housing Partners, Blacksburg Children’s Museum, Nest Realty.
The Gingerbread House contest, sponsored by Kent Jewelers and Nest Realty, was the fourth held in Kent Square. This year, the event raised more than $600 for Micah’s Backpack.
The winning house was created by The Jilk Stowe Family- with their ‘Up’-themed house. Cook Family Dentistry’s “Rudolph”-themed dentist office took second, and Caroline Barnard’s beach-themed house won third.
Jessie Richards, Rebekah Waldrep and Alice Coddington were voters whose names were drawn at random to receive downtown gift certificates.
Gingerbread houses were created by Caroline Barnard, Qualtrax Headquarters, Qualtrax, Shelter Alternatives, VT Senior Fellow for Resource Development, Curie & DaVinci Science Living Learning, XYZ Art Gallery, VT Softball, Jilk Stowe Family, Cook Family Dentistry, The Clay Sisters, The Reusch Family, DeJesus Family, Harding Avenue Elementary School.
