Mad River Valley Community Calendar

Name: Memory Tree Lighting Ceremony
Start: 2025-12-18T16:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-12-18T17:30:00-05:00
Location: The Slow Road by Shaw’s

Powered by Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce and The Valley Reporter

The Mad River Valley Community Calendar is The Valley’s most comprehensive events calendar. All are invited to submit their event here:

CLICK TO ADD EVENT

Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce and The Valley Reporter logos

—

« All Events

Memory Tree Lighting Ceremony

December 18 @ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

The Mad River Valley Memory Tree provides a way for community members to remember and honor a loved one, event, or anything close to your hearts and support a great cause too. At the tree lighting ceremony the bulb dedications are read. Each light dedication costs $5 with donations matched by the Winthrop H. Smith Jr. Family Foundation. All funds raised from the Memory Tree initiative are donated to the stewardMRV program that works to steward the MRV’s outdoor recreational access point.

The Mad River Valley Memory Tree has long been a highlight to the annual illumination of the valley. It began as a fundraising project of the Mad River Valley Lions Club back in the 1970’s.

The original concept was borrowed from the Saint Johnsbury Lions Club. Each year they would hold a tree lighting ceremony on a Friday in December just after dark where they would read the names of those who bought bulbs and for whom. After the Lions Club disbanded the Memory Tree tradition went away until Joan Wilson, John Gallagher and Nancy and Jess Mobley revived the idea in 2013. Each year a different cause is selected as the beneficiary of the funds raised.