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A SNEAK PEEK at the 2017 Quad City Arts’ Festival of Trees

DAVENPORT – The RiverCenter in downtown Davenport has been transformed into a Winter Wonderland for the next 11 days and WQAD News 8 is giving you a sneak...
Festival of Trees

DAVENPORT - The RiverCenter in downtown Davenport has been transformed into a Winter Wonderland for the next 11 days and WQAD News 8 is giving you a sneak peek at what you can expect during this year's Quad City Arts' Festival of Trees.

During Good Morning Quad Cities on Thursday, November 16th, we had "Breakfast With..." Cheryl DeCap, the Administrator of Festival of Trees. She says the event was started in 1986 by a group of local women:

"[They] said we need to do something within our community and all the design and the development and the idea all came from someone’s living room," she explained. "It’s just taken off and it’s fabulous and so if it wasn’t for the vision of that group of women we wouldn’t be here today."

More than 30 years later, Festival of Trees is known as one of the top events of its kind in North America - with more than 100,000 attendees every year. What's more - 100% of the proceeds go to Quad City Arts:

"Whether it’s a piece of fudge in the Treat Shop or if it’s one of the beautiful designs, all the monies and the proceeds go to Quad City Arts," explained Cheryl. "That, in turn, benefits all the programs at Quad City Arts to include the Metro Arts Program, which is a summer youth program. We have a public sculpture program and the big one is the Visiting Artist Series, which puts visual and performing artists out in our schools in the area."

That 100% donation is made possible because Festival of Trees is 100% driven by volunteers:

To volunteer for Festival of Trees, click here.

Festival of Trees opens to the public on Saturday, November 18th right after the Festival of Trees Holiday Parade. Be sure to come and say hi to the WQAD News 8 crew as we walk through the parade route! Festival of Trees is open every day through Sunday, November 26th except for Thanksgiving Day.

For more information on Festival of Trees, click here.

Today's "Breakfast With..." was provided by Happy Joe's as it celebrates its 45th birthday:

To learn more about a special holiday event coming up, click here.

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