Winter Wonderland a hit once again
The 10th edition of the Kateri Memorial Foundation (KMF)’s Karonhiaráhstha’s Winter Wonderland has once again been a great success, as people in Kahnawake - and, increasingly, surrounding communities - come together to take in the holiday spirit, donate money to good causes, and try to win the elaborate tree displays put together by community organizations, businesses, and families.
For KMF board member Carla Skye and Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) chief Iohahiio Delisle, the two co-founders of the Winter Wonderland, the event is a “silver lining” to what is otherwise an extremely difficult time of the year for them.
The event is named after their daughter, who tragically died during a family vacation in St. Martin 10 years ago as an infant.
“It started from a grieving perspective, Carla and myself losing our child very dramatically,” said Delisle.
“Everyone coming together, it signifies how Kahnawa’kehró:non in general are so sympathetic and supportive when it comes to tragedy like this. We’ve created the venue which promoted the spirit of compassion and giving, and many community members came in and supported this great initiative.”
Skye said that while the grand total of what has been collected in donations has yet to be fully tabulated after expenses, it is safe to say the event was quite successful.
“The 10th annual was just spectacular in every way,” said Skye. “I can’t thank the community enough for coming out, the volunteers, the sponsors, we couldn’t do it without them. They deserve an extra thanks on behalf of our family and the KMF as well.”
Olivier Cadotte The Eastern Door
What is already known is the half-and-half amount, where the winner, Jowelle Smoke, walked away with $66,250 - $19,000 more than last year’s sold-out half-and-half.
This year, the 21 trees on display were not at the Knights of Columbus, but rather at the Playground Poker complex, due to the Knights being unavailable due to security concerns.
Skye said that the new venue exceeded her initial expectations.
“The amount of people that came through, it was different than usual. There was definitely more foot traffic,” said Skye, who added that in particular there were noticeably more people from outside the community who came to see the Wonderland than in past years.
Now that the Knights is considered safe for events again, Skye said the KMF board will need to discuss where to hold the event in the future given the success of the new venue.
“It’s something that we all need to sit down and talk about, both with the team from Playground as well as our board,” said Skye.
Delisle said that one thing that will stay the same for sure is the tactile, in-person nature of the event - paper tickets and physical trees.
“We’re always pitched to take this event to ‘another level,’ to incorporate virtual kiosks, digitize purchases, AI trees. This is not something we want to promote, because we want to continue to have that family interaction, where the children can put tickets in, just to keep promoting an overall family type interaction,” said Delisle.
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The 21 tree winners were drawn on Facebook Live on Saturday, November 23. The full list of winners of each tree can be found on the KMF’s Facebook page.
The money raised by the Wonderland during its operating week will go towards causes like the Orville Standup Memorial Kateri Food Basket, CPR training, parental bereavement, and higher education initiatives in Kahnawake.
In the past, only higher education in healthcare had been targeted by Wonderland fundraising, but Delisle said that due to the event’s success, it was decided to open the mandate to higher education in the community more broadly.
