FULTON – For the past 31 years the Fulton community has come together to express its creativity through the Parade of Trees at the John Wells Pratt House museum.
The event began in the late 1980s when the last mortgage payment was made for the house and the board of directors for the historical society wanted to show its appreciation to the community for helping to save the historic building.
Non-profit organizations, classrooms and businesses from around the city of Fulton decorated 18 trees this year and set them up the week before Thanksgiving. The week following Thanksgiving, the community began to submit their votes for their favorites.
Along with the general public, over 20 classrooms from the Fulton school district made field trips to visit the museum and vote which trees they liked the best. Adults vote using paper and the children vote for their favorite four trees using chips.
“Each year we get more trees and more tours from kids,” said volunteer Cindy Bickford. “I’ve got another five teachers that have told me this year that they want paperwork sent to them [for their classrooms to send in a tree].”
Voting ended Friday, Dec. 13 at noon and the votes were tallied up.
The non-profit winners are given a cash donation for their organization and an award. The sponsors for first place winners is Fulton Savings Bank; Oswego Valley Insurance Agencies (OVIA) for second place winners; and Edward Jones (Oswego), Blue Moon Grill and Fulton Sunrise Rotary are the third place sponsors.
The first, second and third place winners for Adult, Youth, Children and Business will be announced Monday, Dec. 16. These categories include Oswego County Opportunities, Oswego Industries, Towpath Towers, elementary classes, preschool classes and others.
*UPDATE – This year’s winners are:
Adult
First place – Open Doors Neighborhood
Second place – Oswego Industries Life Dahab Program
Third place – Caring and Sharing Breast Cancer Support
Youth
First place – Fulton Junior High School, Mrs. Ferron’s class
Second place – Fulton GRB High School, Ms. Thompson’s class
Third place – Fulton Public Library, reading room
Children
First place – Volney Elementary School first and second grade, Ms. Brewster
Second place – Noah’s Christian Nursery School
Third place – First Step Universal Preschool at Volney
Business – Pink Zebra
Last year’s winners were:
Adult
First place – Open Doors Neighborhood
Second place – Oswego Industries
Third place – ARC Oswego County
Youth
First place – Fulton GRB High School
Second place – Fulton Public Library
Third place – Fulton Junior High School
Children
First place – Noah’s Nursery
Second place – First Step Universal Pre-K Volney
Third place – Fourth grade, Lanigan Elementary
Business – Pink Zebra
“They are all beautiful and all different,” Bickford said. “They never come in the same two.”
Bickford, who has volunteered for the Parade of Trees for about five years, starts preparing for the showcase at the end of October when applications are made available.
If a business, classroom or organization in Fulton would like to put in a tree next year, they can call the Pratt House and have an application mailed to them. There is no entry fee. In the rules, there cannot be lights or anything battery operated for safety reasons, and there must be some handmade items on the tree instead of just store bought decorations.
