North Georgia LEGO Train Club at the Festival of Trees 2002

For the second year in a row the North Georgia LEGO^® Train Club (NGLTC) has sponsored a holiday tree at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s (CHOA) Festival of Trees.

The NGLTC tree is decorated with LEGO^® ornaments built by patients of the CHOA, local school children and NGLTC club members. The LEGO^®elements used on the tree were generously donated by LEGO^®Direct. Kindergartners from Matt Elementary School in Forsyth County spent a morning building ornaments to help decorate the tree. The students were excited to have the opportunity to play and at the same time help out other children who where in need.

We held two building sessions with the patients of Egleston children’s hospital. The patients and family members gathered in the hospital’s activity room for an afternoon of LEGO^® ornament building and some fun time away from being sick.

Once all the ornaments were completed each one was glued together and prepared for the tree. This year the NGLTC was given the honor of being a “Focus tree”, which means that our tree was set away from the other 200 trees at the festival and placed near the festival entrance. Also complementing our tree display this year were two LEGO^®sculptures made by Eric Harshbarger that were commissioned by the festival organizers.

Our tree was a 10-foot tree decorated with 150-feet of LEGO^® garland (800 bricks), over 300 ornaments, a peppermint holiday train, 3,700 lights and topped off with a lighted LEGO^®angel.

The tree is on display to the public from December 7^th – December 15^th and then will be sold to help support the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta system. Also two LEGO^®sculpture sets (Statue of Liberty, Minifigure) were auctioned off at a silent auction at the festival preview party.

The Festival of Trees, Atlanta’s premier holiday event, benefits Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Visitors can stroll through 150,000 square feet of decorated trees, wreaths and decorator vignettes created by the city’s top artists and designers. The Festival also features magnificent gingerbread houses, an assortment of specialty shops and an array of children’s activities.

This extraordinary event has become a tradition of Atlanta’s holiday season while raising much needed money for quality services and facilities for children at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The NGLTC is proud to be a part of this event and hope to continue supporting the CHOA in future events.

The NGLTC would like to thank LEGO^®Direct for their support of this project, the tree display could not have happened with out it. We would also like to thank the Discover Mills LEGO Outlet store for the donation of the LEGO train parts.