Festival of Lights Auction Being Held Saturday, December 13th

Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 -- 3:01 PM

The Festival of Lights Charity Auction is being held this Saturday, December 13th at the American Legion in Marshfield.

The auction will benefit several charities that help veterans in need. I spoke with Mary Randall, the event coordinator, and she discussed the charity auction in more detail.

Listen to the interview with Mary here!

Again, that event is being held this Saturday, December 13th at the Marshfield American Legion and you can purchase tickets for the event at the door.

(AI assisted transcription via Otter.ai)

Mary: "We understand the power and the need for helping our veterans and first responders with some of the things that happen in their worlds, right? They have a very distinct experience. And so we are hosting five charities that serve veterans in various aspects of veterans needs."

"So, each one of them, we have Camp Victory, Inc, which is an outdoor camp. We serve a lot of different kinds of outdoor experiences for veterans. Rock Creek Disabled Outdoors is not too far from Camp Victory and they have disabled hunts for those who are disabled, wheelchair drive."

"And Camp Victory and Rock Creek Disabled Outdoors have partnered together in a lot of things, like, we lend them our track chairs and we also have hunting experiences."

"There's Patriots for Warriors out there, out of Wausau, and they give funds to veterans who are undergoing a little bit of trouble and they need just a hand up, gas cards, food help, for rent for a little bit."

"And then we have Operation Horses Heal and they work with large animals, the horses, and it's like those horses have, ESP, the patriots, our warriors, respond really well and the horses seem to understand what's going on in their head. They own their own camp as well."

"And then we have a service called Three Bridges, which works with addiction recovery and a lot of our, not a lot of our veterans, but some of our veterans experience addictions that they need to overcome and Three Bridges works with the therapies that are involved in that."

"So, these five organizations are all coming together. They're all going to bring a Christmas tree that will be ready for auction and that will be part of our live auction."

"We have other live auction items as well to help raise funds for these organizations. And then we also have a whole series of silent auction items, over 30 that will be available for people to bid on."

"And when they come in, there'll be champagne and there'll be hors d'oeuvres. It's gonna be such a fun night with all the lights and just a fun event. We have the Marshfield High School coming with their strings. They'll be playing music for us during that event, and I'm just very excited about it."

Riley: "Sounds like a great way to get into the Christmas spirit!"

Mary: "Absolutely, it's going to be a blast! If you are a true Wisconsinite, don't worry about the weather. You're going to get out there and have a good time no matter what!"

Riley: "And now this is a ticketed event. Can you tell us what the cost of the tickets are, and then can you kind of give us times for when the auction is going to start and then where it's being held?"

Mary: "Yes, the event is held at the American Legion on South Maple, 21 South Maple Street, in Marshfield. The event begins at 5:30pm and people can buy tickets at the door starting, well, this week, we don't have time to mail the tickets, so now they can come and get them at the door if they would like."

"Once we hit a capacity of 200 though we have to, we have to call it, because the Legion is not that big, but we are offering tickets at the door. The cost is $25 a person, or $50 for a couple, and they get a glass of champagne when they arrive. And, as I said, the hors d'oeuvres."

"And the event is Saturday, December 13th, and the as far as the auction begins, the silent auctions begin from 5:30pm to 7:30pm with the live auction beginning at 7:30pm and going until we are able to finish that, I don't think that will take much more than 45 minutes to an hour, and then people will pick up their prizes. And the benefit of buying a tree at this auction is that the charities will deliver it to your home or business or charity of your choice within the Marshfield area."

Riley: "Anything else you'd like to add?"

Mary: "I think that the causes that we have chosen, the charities that we've chosen, we have vetted each one, and they're all very wonderful charities that help our service members."

"And I would just encourage everybody to come out and help support their cause and their missions to be successful. They're all nonprofits and they all need as much support as we can give them."

(Flyer courtesy of Mary Randall via press release)

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.