TACOMA, Wash. – Over the weekend, Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation kicked off the holiday season by welcoming neighbors to the 39th annual Festival of Trees. More than 6,000 community members and MultiCare employees gathered for public viewing days, special tours and a MultiCare employee and volunteer night during the initial week of festivities. The following week’s ticketed events united more than 800 donors, staff, partners and community members in support of the final year of construction of the MultiCare Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital’s new pediatric campus, opening in May 2026.
Following the Hokold Foundation’s opening gift of $100,000 during Festival’s signature gala event on December 6, philanthropic support at the multi-day event set records, totaling $3 million and counting.
Wayne’s Roofing lets generosity loose at the Gala live tree auction.
“This year’s Festival of Trees was truly a once in a lifetime event, as it celebrated incredible progress toward says Alicia Chapman, executive director, Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation. “We’re honored by the extraordinary support from our donors, community partners and hospital staff as we continue working toward this vision.”
Festival of Trees is the largest annual fundraiser for Mary Bridge Children’s and a reminder of the community’s role in championing Pacific Northwest children and their families.
Opening in 2026, the new Mary Bridge Children’s campus will improve pediatric health care access as one of three children’s hospitals in Washington state.
“The new freestanding hospital and dedicated campus for children and their families marks a historic milestone, bringing us back to our origins in 1955,” says Jeff Poltawsky, president and market leader, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital & Health Network. “This state-of-the-art children’s hospital is a legacy project, enhancing specialized environments and care teams in the delivery of world-class care close to home.”
Beams of gratitude, Beads of Courage
At Tinsel on the Town, Brandi Carlson, Layton | Abbott Construction project assistant, shares her experience as a Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital project partner and patient mom.
Brandi Carlson, mom of three and Layton | Abbott Construction project assistant, understands the difference it makes to have health care close to home. At Tinsel on the Town, she described her oldest daughter Brooke’s first encounter at Mary Bridge Children’s, as well as her youngest son’s foot fracture. When her middle son, Asher, struggled with disruptive food and sleep challenges, Brandi took heart returning to Mary Bridge Children’s for his care. Asher was introduced to the neurology team and ear, nose and throat specialists, and supported by donor-powered add-on services that offered kid-friendly procedure explanations, and improved his ability to sleep through the night. While his services offered support behind the scenes, others embolden young patients to find and wear their bravery on their sleeves.
Mary Bridge Children’s Beads of Courage program, which is supported in full by donors, marked stitches in time during treatment for Iris, then an 11-year-old patient with acute lymphoid leukemia at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. Each colorful bead represents a step of a child’s serious illness journey, from scans to pokes to radiation, to create a physical reminder of their strength and challenges overcome. Her father Daniel stood beside her at The Festival of Trees gala event the following evening as he recounted all that Iris had been through and donors’ role in enabling the bright spots that kept his daughter going.
A mountain of LEGO sets festively wrapped in vibrant primary colors form a pallet of fun to be donated to patients on behalf of the Child Life Services team at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital.
One tree that understood the role of play during healing, the LEGO tree, “Everything is Awesome,” included a pallet of LEGOs valued at $7,500, donated on the buyer’s behalf to Mary Bridge Children’s Child Life Services for patients in the hospital. This cheery tree was designed with the help of current Mary Bridge Children’s patients, with adult design help by Kalyn Kinomoto and Sarah Strode and sponsorship from Tacoma Anesthesia Associates, U.S. Oil & Refining Co. and Copacino Fujikado Advertising. The tree was one of the best-sellers, purchased for $30,000 by Foundation board member Chris Walters and his wife, Laura.
A superhero-themed tree gleams neon-bright against a handmade quilt and Space Needle, and unites the Marvel Avengers, Captain America and Spiderman among other masked doers of justice.
Another top-selling tree honored the superheroes among us complete with a handmade hero quilt and 7-foot-tall cedar Space Needle. The “Not All Superheroes Wear Capes” tree celebrated Joan Cooley, who was inspired by her childhood medical experiences to found Child Life Services at Mary Bridge Children’s in 1979. For 26 years, her own superpowers of emotional support, understanding and inspiration guided kids through unfamiliar medical environments. Joan retired from Child Life in 2005 and passed away this year, forever immortalized as a true Mary Bridge Children’s superhero. Jim and Lindsey Jensen welcomed this tree home, designed by the Mary Bridge Brigade’s Esther Hodges Guild, with sponsorship from John L. Scott Foundation and Rentiel Precision Laser Cutting LLC.
Both trees were among the five top displays which garnered over $30,000, including: “Thimbleberry Holiday Retreat” designed by Sarah Whinnery and purchased by Kevin and Theresa Iverson; and the “First Class to Paradise” designed by Jana Dinham and purchased by Kevin Wold.
The fifth top-grossing tree of this year’s festival, “Under Construction,” will remain on campus at the hospital to keep spirits high among visitors.
‘Happily Ever After’ lives on in today’s lobbies, tomorrow’s rooftop garden
A sparkling holiday tree flush with children’s toys and hi-visibility construction accoutrements.
A sparkling holiday tree flush with children’s toys and hi-visibility construction accoutrements.Hospital visitors and families can still catch a glimmer of the Festival of Trees magic on display until January in the MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital’s lobby. The third and final “Under Construction” tree reminds viewers that like the new campus buildings, hope rises, with its dreamy imagination of the future hospital in gemstone-inspired Mary Bridge Children’s colors. The ultimate construction tree in the series includes toys to be donated to hospital patients in January, thanks to Foundation board member Peter Braun and Marty Braun’s $250,000 bid for naming rights. Created by Jesse Shaw and sponsored by real-life construction project partners Abbott Construction and Layton Construction.
Armed service emblems set against patriotic reds, blues and whites will inspire service members near and far as part of the holiday tree donated for public display at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Visitors to Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) will also be able to enjoy a second tree display continuing through the end of the year. In a surprise salute to the sacrifices of families living on JBLM, John and Diane Dimmer purchased the armed-services tree “Honoring Our Service Members” as a gift for the Children’s Museum at JBLM.
A forever-memento of this season’s Festival of Trees may be familiar to Mary Bridge Children’s community members who remember the Tom Torrens bell in the hospital rose garden. Rung to mark milestones in patients’ healing journeys, this bell and its legacy called in a resounding $500,000 donation for one year of naming rights upon installation in the new hospital tower’s rooftop garden.
Supporting organizations branch out
Festival of Trees is organized by Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation in partnership with the Mary Bridge Brigade. As the hospital’s largest and longest standing donor, the Brigade has raised more than $50 million during its 104-year history in support of Mary Bridge Children’s programs. Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation raised over $100 million in support of construction of the new 100% pediatric hospital campus.
Festival of Trees is made possible by hundreds of volunteers, donors and sponsors from the community. For more information, visit the Festival of trees website or contact Festival staff.
About Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital
Founded in 1955, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital is the state-designated Level II Pediatric Trauma Center for Western Washington. Offering comprehensive care and resources for critically ill and injured children, Mary Bridge Children’s is the only pediatric hospital in Southwest Washington. Mary Bridge Children’s also provides primary, specialty, therapy and urgent care services at its outpatient centers and clinics across the Puget Sound region, including Tacoma, Puyallup, Gig Harbor, Olympia, Auburn, Covington, Maple Valley, Federal Way, Renton, Bonney Lake and Silverdale.
Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital & Health Network believes that kids should be at the front of the line. More than a place of hope and healing, Mary Bridge Children’s is a place where expert care helps kids get back to doing what they do best: being kids. Mary Bridge Children’s serves children and families, regardless of ability to pay, thanks to generous contributions to the Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation.
Mary Bridge Children’s is a part of MultiCare Health System, the largest community-based and locally governed health system in Washington state. For more information about Mary Bridge Children’s, visit marybridge.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, or our Kite Strings blog.
About Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation
The Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation supports uncompensated care and clinical and community programs not covered by insurance for patients and families at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, Wash. Mary Bridge Children’s serves more than 300,000 children each year. More than half of the families served at Mary Bridge Children’s are low-income, and more than 60 percent of families are on Medicaid.
Generous donations to the Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation allow the hospital to expand access to care so all children can receive the care they need. The Mary Bridge Brigade is the largest and oldest donor and, throughout its more than 100-year history, has donated in excess of $50 million to Mary Bridge Children’s, including a $10 million commitment to the new children’s hospital.
Donor-supported programs and services made possible by the Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation include mobile immunization clinics, child life services, Helping Hands and more. Learn more about opportunities to give or get involved.
