CORAL SPRINGS, FL – The Festival of Trees is coming back to Coral Springs Center for the Arts – a fundraiser for rare pediatric and young adult cancer.

The annual event is a display campaign in which sponsor organizations decorate trees in the style of their choosing for exhibition at the center’s lobby for the month of December.

All the money raised will go The Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation and a local Florida hospital, organizers said.

SIGNUPSCRIPT

For the center’s general manager, Bill Haggett, pediatric cancer is personal because his son, Chansen Savakinus, has been battled the disease since he was 6-years-old.

Savakinus’s treatment has been chronicled by Haggett’s wife, Destiny, in an ongoing series in TAPinto Coral Springs called Fighting For Chansen. Read the latest article here.

The trees will be on display from Dec. 2 to Jan. 2 during the center’s busy season which will include The Hip Hop Nutcracker on Dec. 11, International Ballet's “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 16-18, and New Years Day performance of The State Ballet of the Ukraine’s presentation of Swan Lake.**BULLSEYE

Sponsoring a tree costs $200 or $500. Wreaths can also be purchased for $75.

Organizers hope as many as 30 trees will be sponsored and decorated.

To learn more about the Festival of Trees and become a sponsor, click here.**STANDARD

In a letter on the center’s website, Bill Haggett explained why his family started Festival of Trees and why they selected The Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation as the beneficiary.

“Fifteen years ago my six-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. What followed was a whirlwind of emotional and financial devastation that ebbed and flowed through the three and a half years of treatment from the first diagnoses. This devastating diagnosis was only the beginning. Two years following the end of his treatment he relapsed in his spinal fluid at 11 years old. After beating leukemia, a second time he remained in remission for seven years. We believed his cancer was finally behind him but then at the age of 20 he was diagnosed with a very rare cancer, Fibrolamellar Carcinoma.

“This disease is a rare Liver Cancer that attacks young, healthy adults and children with healthy livers and currently has no cure. Research and treatments on this cancer have been advancing quickly in the last 5 years with help from clinicians, surgeons and researchers dedicated to finding a cure. Families like our own have a lot of reason for hope and it is due to organizations like the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation. Our family throughout the years has been blessed with community supporting our son’s battle and we have been shown repeatedly what the power of community can do.**BULLSEYE

“With that in mind we have created Festival of Trees to raise money for pediatric cancer research. This year we have earmarked the event to benefit the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation. 100% of the proceeds from the sponsorships from this event will be going to the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation whose focus is on research. The Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation is focused on research at some of the top cancer research facilities in the world searching for cures for this rare pediatric and young adult disease. 100% of the money they receive goes to research to help find a cure. Finding a cure for Fibrolamellar Carcinoma is just the start. Research being done for this unique cancer will lead to cures for many other pediatric cancers like it.”

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