Assistance League of Carlsbad hosted its annual Christmas tree auction, Oct. 19 at the Assistance League house on North Canal Street. To see photos of the trees, click here.
Christmas in Carlsbad wouldn’t be the same without Brenda Day.
The 77-year-old lifelong resident started designing and building Christmas trees for the local Assistance League chapter after she retired in 2001. But she said she’s been involved in some respect since day one. Half a century later, the Assistance League celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a record-breaking tree auction.
The highest winning bid at Thursday’s annual auction was $4,000 per foot for an eight-foot tree. In total, the league made about $80,000 this year, with most trees going for about $100 to $400 a foot. The money helps clothe school children, with the league providing for about 900 students this year.
Day remembers the auction’s humble beginnings about 40 years ago, when small wire prototypes were built in league members’ garages or living rooms. Volunteers, mostly elderly women in the community, would bring the models to various organizations which would pick and purchase a favorite theme. Then the women would go back to the organizations to put the full version together.
Today, the trees are auctioned at the Assistance League house on North Canal Street, and the decorations are taken, just like in the old days, from door to door of the winning bidders.
For Day, it’s all about the children. “It was just so happy,” she said of her first few auctions. “We were able to go and see the trees. People were happy to do something fun, but also for the kids. It just touched my heart that people work so hard to dress the children. It was a pleasure.” She remembers her first tree, 16 years ago, was a Raggedy Anne and Andy theme. This year was a Santa Claus theme, which sold for $520 a foot. She hand-painted the ornaments herself and worked with her best friend Nita Lynch of Artesia, just like the pair have for almost two decades.
“The style has changed. We have progressed,” Day said. “(Today) they have larger houses. We try to have a variety. Whatever (designers) do, it comes from inside. We say ‘God bless you.’”
Cindy Elkins, an Assistance League member of 19 years, coordinated this year’s auction. She said the money provides a vital service for Carlsbad’s school children, as the city’s impoverished population has grown since the Assistance League started in Carlsbad in 1967. “Nowadays, there is so much bullying going on,” she said. “Why be bullied for how you look? We never dreamed we’d have 900 children.” Children who come to the Assistance League for help receive two pairs of pants, three shirts, a jacket, a pair of shoes, a week of socks and underwear and a hygiene kit. Elkins said she makes sure the children take a book with them as well. She worried it could be the only book they get all year.
“A lot of the kids say this is their favorite store,” she said. “But if it wasn’t for the community, we wouldn’t be here.”
The auction is the League’s biggest annual fundraiser, Elkins said. And the money goes toward putting on additional fundraisers throughout the year aimed at raising money for the cause. To Assistance League President Pam Tabor, the organization’s efforts are purely to give children in need equal footing. “No child can help the situation they’re in,” she said. “If we can (put) every child on the same plane going to school, that’s worth it.” One of Day’s fondest memories throughout the years was getting clothes for an eighth-grade football player who arrived at the league in full gear. She initially thought the child was a boy, but soon realized the opposite when the helmet and pads came off. “Once we got it all off and got her dressed, she was a beautiful young lady,” Day recalled. “She left with some gorgeous clothes.”
And the ladies of the Assistance League are already working on next year’s auction, Day said, planning designs to work on throughout the year.
She estimated she spent 200 hours on her tree this year, and it was all worth it to give the children of Carlsbad a merry Christmas.
