Behind the lights and glitter and good cheer that are the hallmarks of the Noble Horizons Auxiliary’s annual Festival of Trees, is a tremendous amount of plain hard work.
No one knows that better than Meredith Dittmar, festival co-chair for the third year in a row. “Planning begins in May,” she said, and by this time of year the pace really ramps up. Right now she’s on a personal mission to encourage new people to let their imaginations loose and create a tree or wreath or swag or whatever they like for the festival. “Some people make a display every year and a few make more than one, but we’re really looking for new people to participate.” If it takes a personal invitation, she’ll do that, too, chatting up the festival to nearly everyone she meets, strangers as well as acquaintances.
All it took was one visit to the festival to inspire Meredith to get involved in one of the area’s favorite holiday traditions. The following year she decorated a tree and soon after joined the festival committee. A graphic designer, she takes on the festival’s print and digital promotion as well as tending to the myriad details that go into making the festival happen with her co-chair Karen Bennett and the committee.
Meredith’s ties to Lakeville go deep, though she’s lived here only since 2014. Born to a military family, she moved around a good bit, but summers were spent at her grandmother’s home in Lakeville. She feels a particular connection to Town Grove where watching a mother duck lead her brood into the water remains one of her earliest memories.
Most of her working life was spent in Washington, DC, an environment that couldn’t be more unlike the Northwest Corner. She moved there right after college and quickly found work doing graphics for government contractors, including those working with NASA and the Department of Defense. But, after nearly 30 years, the pace of Washington and the crush of traffic seemed too burdensome to put up with any longer. Fortunately, the ease of digital communication meant that she didn’t have to be in Washington to do her work so, in 2014, she joined her sister in her late grandmother’s house in Lakeville, while maintaining the business connections she’d cultivated over the years.
Anyone who would like to create a tree or other holiday decoration should contact Meredith at meredith@dittmaronline.com for registration forms or further information.
The 22nd Festival of Trees at Noble Horizons opens to the public on Saturday, November 17. It concludes with the gala and silent auction of the holiday displays on the evening of Saturday, December 1.