News : Virginia Gay Tree of Lights campaign begins with Initial Lighting

VSHS band members play Christmas songs after VGH tree was lit Thursday.

Mark Mossman speaks to the audience about this history of the Tree of Lights campaign.

VGH Foundation Director Mike Timmermans speaks during his first lighting ceremony.

For 19 years, Virginia Gay Hospital leaders have been lighting the evergreen tree outside the front lobby for the annual Tree of Lights campaign.

Looking back on the first event 19 years, ago, VGH Hospital Board Chairman Mark Mossman noticed a change that makes the event a little more logistically challenging than it was then:

"That tree is a lot bigger than it used to be," he told the audience during the initial tree lighting Thursday evening.

VGH Foundation Director Mike Timmermans, leading his first Tree of Lights Campaign, told the audience that the annual holiday fund-raiser has provided the hospital nearly $1 million in funding for special projects over the years.

"As I think about the significance of the Tree of Lights, I see it as a celebration of the lives that have touched and influenced each of us," Timmermans told the crowd. "Each family represented here has their own unique story, and the lives that are honored and remembered through the Tree of Lights are part of the patchwork that makes our nation, our state, our country, our communities and our families so great."

VGH Administrator Mike Riege told the audience that the goal of this year's fund-raiser is a very important one. The hospital hopes to raise enough money to purchase a pulmonary function machine. This machine, he said, can diagnose lung ailments such as COPD before the patient begins to show symptoms.

One in 12 Iowans suffers from COPD or other lung diseases, and the machine will help those with this affliction be able to obtain an earlier diagnosis and treatment.

Rev. Mark Urlaub of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church offered the blessing on the campaign. Vinton-Shellsburg High School band members Katherine Dick, Jacob Bunge, James Yenserr, Aaron Burkey and Trevor Brown played several Christmas songs after the tree was lit.

The bottom half of the tree was lit Thursday. The entire tree will be lit to symbolize the reaching of the goal on Dec. 16.