Paullina’s Hometown Christmas Festival again included a fun night of Jingle & Mingle cocktail party, a trivia competition and the Festival of Trees Christmas brunch. Due to the enthusiasm and generosity from our community we raised $5185.56 from these three events and donated the funds to the Paullina Fire Department (PFD). The proceeds will be used to purchase self-contained breathing apparatuses.
The Hometown Christmas weekend kicked off with the Jingle and Mingle social time with three groups of mixologists serving samples of their holiday cocktails; The Angry Antler, St. Nic-A-Rita and Naughty and Spice. After a very close competition between the mixologists and a vote by the attendees, Marty Weber and Mark Von Arb were again awarded the title of “Mr. Jingle” for another year. The 2022 winning cocktail was the “Naughty and Spice”. It is a bourbon cocktail with cranberry and pumpkin spice. Please consider joining us next year to vote for the best cocktail and determine who will be Mr./Ms. Jingle 2023.
We had 12 trivia teams testing their knowledge of the Paullina Fire Department, sports, movies, animals and all around general useless trivia knowledge. A tiebreaker between 3 top scores was needed to determine the trivia winner for the evening. After a timed race to see who could get dressed into PPE – personal protective equipment, the Red Hot Tomolly’s (Thomas and Molly Stoll, Hunter and Kelsey Fiddelke and Marty and Norma Weber) won trivia bragging rights. A big “thank you” to emcee, Scott Ebel, the Paullina Fire Department and the Paullina Ambulance crew for organizing and leading the trivia game. Several community businesses and volunteers contributed cash donations, food and equipment helping make this evening a huge success. “Thank you” to them as well.
The following Saturday morning the annual Festival of Trees brunch was held. A wonderful catered brunch was served on beautifully decorated tablescapes. The creativity of our volunteer community members and businesses that designed and decorated displays and tables did not disappoint again this season. Guests enjoyed a coffee bar, mimosa bar, quiche, ham, fruit and pecan caramel rolls. Many generous tips were contributed towards the PFD fundraiser. “Thank you” to all the businesses and individuals that donated food, time and their decorating talents made this event so special.
The fundraising for the Paullina Fire Department was successful. The money raised was combined with the generous contribution from Germantown. The combined dollars provided enough funds for the Paullina Fire Department to purchase 3 Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) units. These units protect firemen when they must enter a smoke-filled structure for search and rescue activity.