♪♪
-This is just really gratifying for me.
I love it.
-These extraordinary trees sell for thousands,
but all the profits support a very good cause.
-You don't realize why people would need
uncompensated care even if they have insurance.
-They're actually seeing life in action.
It's very hard to be a salmon.
-And a spectacle of nature draws big crowds
to a small creek in a Seattle park.
These stories and more next on "CityStream."
♪♪
Hi, I'm Enrique Cerna,
and welcome to "CityStream" from Westlake Park.
♪♪
This towering evergreen helps the city usher in
the holiday season.
A few blocks south,
the Fairmont Olympic Hotel is home to the Festival of Trees,
a favorite tradition with an important mission.
♪♪
Nearly two dozen designer trees sparkle and shine,
each one thoughtfully decorated in honor
of a patient of Seattle Children's Hospital.
Nicole Sanchez tells us about the Festival of Trees fundraiser
to help patients and their families.
♪♪
-What are you doing?
Just checking out your teeth, huh?
-Yeah, I'm trying to take it out.
-9-year-old Hailee Makuch can't wait to lose another tooth.
-That looks like it's old.
Definitely.
I like this chair.
-Just like so many other 9-year-olds,
Hailee is full of joy. -Meow!
-But Hailee's journey has not been like other kids'.
At three years old, she often complained of leg and neck pain.
One day things got so bad, she couldn't walk or move.
-We were in the hospital for about a week,
and they were doing just like every test under the sun
to try to figure out what was going on with her body.
♪♪
-Within days, doctors determined Hailee had
a rare genetic condition with no cure.
-The disease is called Morquio A,
and basically her body doesn't make the enzyme
that we all have that -- -Let me talk.
-Helps to -- -Marco-scopic--
Marco-scopic-saccharidosis.
-Mucopolysaccharidosis. -Ah! Oh, mucopolysaccharidosis.
Sorry. Blah, blah, blah. -Yes.
So her body doesn't make the enzyme that everybody else has,
breaks down cellular waste and gets it out of our body.
So it accumulates in her bones and her organs
and her soft tissue.
-Hailee needs weekly life saving treatments
for the rest of her life, each one costing nearly $30,000.
When Hailee's dad brought her to the ER,
he had just lost his job.
The family is grateful
for Seattle Children's Hospitals uncompensated care fund.
-You see all the tests that are being ordered,
and you just think in your head, like --
"God, how much is this going to cost?"
And it's terrifying to have to think about that stuff
when your child is sick in the hospital.
And so there is just no way
that we would have survived without uncompensated care.
♪♪
-Ready to come in?
[ Bells tinkle ]
-The work that happens inside this unassuming warehouse
is part of an annual fundraiser that helps patients like Hailee.
I love Christmas.
The volunteers here with the Seattle Festival of Trees Guild
spend countless hours designing Christmas trees
to raise money for the hospital's
uncompensated care fund
and Seattle Children's Autism Center.
It's work they believe in.
-Well, the reason I do this
is because having been a student nurse
at Seattle Children's Hospital,
it was incredible to see the quality of care and caring.
-Dottie Greenwood has been volunteering with the festival
for more than 40 years.
-It's an addiction.
And I have to confess it is.
So I have several at home
and I love doing them.
And my car is so full of glitter
that you can't get rid of it.
It won't come out.
-She says the team works year round on the trees,
which individuals and businesses
can purchase for a minimum donation of $4200.
-This is just really gratifying for me.
I love it.
♪♪
-Thank you for supporting the families of Seattle Children's.
-Guild members pour their hearts into this work
and it all comes to life.
Each year at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel
from late November to early December.
The fundraiser also includes a gala event with a live
and silent auction.
-It's so heartwarming to be at the gala and
read the signs on the trees that tell you their story,
and how they benefited from the funds
that we are working all year to raise.
-Seeing the people at the event
and listening, just kind of listening
to the conversations as you're going around,
and they're there for a good reason.
And that's the big thing, is the Children's part of it.
-Each tree is dedicated to a Children's Hospital patient.
Hailee is being honored this year,
and so is a five-year-old twin boy named Tucker.
-Within a few hours of Tucker being born,
it was apparent there were other issues.
-Amy McAfee's son, Tucker,
was born with a heart defect and other serious health issues.
He spent most of his first year at Children's.
-We learned that he had what's called esophageal atresia,
along with a tracheoesophageal fistula, EATF
and some other things.
He has a thumb dysplasia.
He has some differences in his vertebrae,
and so it's all part of a association they call VACTERL
that related to the heart defect.
So, a series of birth defects.
So a bit of a surprise.
-Tucker has had five major surgeries.
He still faces some significant health challenges,
but his family credits Children's for saving his life
and helping them all get through such a difficult process.
-They take care of the parents, too, you know.
They're there for the kids,
but they really helped us through that whole experience.
♪♪
-Both families say having their children featured
at the Seattle Festival of Trees brings them a lot of joy.
They're thrilled to be part of such an important event
that is helping to save even more precious lives.
-We've never been to the Festival of Trees,
always heard about it, and, oh gosh and looking forward to it.
-It's been an honor
to know that people care enough about her story,
that people care enough about other kids
with medical complexities to want to give
and to want to help these families
be able to take care of their kids the best they can.
-What grade would you give Seattle Children's?
-Yeah, I would give it,
like A + + + + +, infinity + +, smiley face,
triple smiley face.
♪♪
-This year, the guild brought in
more than $885,000 during its fundraiser.
There's also a Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmont
to help raise additional funds.
You can check it out and donate through New Year's Day.
To learn more, just go to SeattleFestivalofTrees.com.
♪♪
Next, salmon takes center stage
of one of nature's incredible events.
That's ahead as "CityStream" continues.
♪♪
Welcome back to "CityStream."
Our previous story showcased beautifully decorated trees
bringing hope to children in need.
This next story explores symbols placed in trees
to honor the Coast Salish people,
while also providing healing and spiritual guidance.
Producer Randy Eng has more.
♪♪
-After visiting the area,
I noticed that there was a lot of healing
that needed to happen, so I thought of a prayer paddle.
It's like a design that shows thank you in prayer.
I think when you pray for people,
it's not necessarily for an outcome.
It's for them to find the strength
so they can find clarity.
We call it the Red Road.
The Red Road is about finding yourself to better yourself.
And really, that's what this work is about.
The designs are Coast Salish or CoSalish.
Seattle should have more Salish influence.
Like, we don't have any welcome figures here.
We don't have any story poles, house posts, Alaskan art,
which a lot of people are familiar with in Washington,
is like the totem poles and the form-line.
Really, when that totem pole gets put in the ground,
then it says that this is their territory
and it basically negates our people that are here --
Muckleshoot, Tulalip, Suquamish, Swinomish,
all these people that are still here
and we still don't have our own mark.
And that is something that I'm hoping this does,
is helps to bring back our mark.
That would be like a Salish person
and their hands would be up like this.
Usually when we pray either like this
and that's a way to say thank you, too,
when we say thank you, raise your hands up.
And then Salish design is -- we use crescents, triagons, ovals,
and what's called positive and negative shapes.
So if I were to carve that --
so like those red shapes they would be carved in.
This is a good spot for these pieces
because it's at a historical park,
one of the first parks that Seattle opened,
and it's kind of a good mingling spot
where a lot of the city kind of crosses paths.
Hopefully it just helps in whatever way,
maybe it'll lift somebody's day up.
You know, everybody can use a prayer.
♪♪
-A spectacle of nature is on display at Carkreek Park,
a historic chum salmon run
is providing quite a show for curious visitors.
Producer Matt Peterson takes a look.
-That is a sockeye salmon!
-We're out here at Carkeek Park
at our annual Salmon Celebration Day event.
The Salmon Celebration Day is our biggest event of the season.
-Thank you.
-We have activities, lots of education booths.
-Orca! -Orca!
-Lots of really cool organizations coming out.
[ Water splashes ]
This year we have tons of fish.
The most salmon you're going to see are going to be chum.
They're also called dog salmon
because of their very prominent teeth.
[ Water splashing ]
-That is her testing to see if that's a good spot for a red.
Oh, yeah. There we go. Perfect.
-This is part of our Salmon Stewards program.
-Oh that one -- that one's got a big --
yeah, hook in the side there.
-With Parks and Rec and Seattle Public Utilities.
-There seems to be a lot of them this year.
I love nature. I love sharing that with people.
And this is like one of those rare opportunities
where people come out and something is happening
that's pulling them away from their screens and their jobs.
-Interesting to see kind of up close and personal,
like what this life cycle looks like.
-They're actually seeing life in action.
And I really like engaging with people
when they're in that mode,
because it gives me an opportunity to sort of share
that joy and that love with them.
-Oh, I think it's really exciting
to be able to get my son out into nature like this.
-If you watch them long enough,
you're going to witness something pretty cool,
because once they get up the courage and the energy,
they're gonna try to make a push for getting over that weir.
-They only are in the stream for about ten days
and that's how long they will survive
after coming into the fresh water.
-No, I guess I knew this was the end of their life.
I didn't expect to see so many dead salmon.
-A lot of people get really bummed
when they see the dead fish.
And the reason we leave them is because they bring in
very important nutrients from the ocean.
And when they die, they deposit those nutrients here.
And now, we have all these beautiful trees and animals
that rely on those nutrients.
It's very hard to be a salmon.
-Salmon Stewards -- they're stationed
up and down the creek every Saturday and Sunday
in November from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
-It's actually an incredibly important part
of this ecosystem,
and it's one that's worth preserving.
[ Salmon splashing ]
-As nature's life cycle plays out in a North End creek,
a splash of color is adding new life to Seattle neighborhoods.
Vibrant new murals are lifting spirits
and inspiring creativity.
Randy Eng shows the new brilliance in Belltown.
♪♪
-The murals are all really close.
You start at the center,
sort of Belltown Dog Park at Third and Bell,
and you can kind of walk a couple of loops.
It's, you know, less than a mile.
It'll take you 15 minutes or, you know, 2 hours,
depending on how long you want to take.
But every time you turn a street corner,
you'll see another mural or two.
♪♪
These artists, they're passionate, they're fierce.
They're hardworking, they're self-sufficient.
They're super professional.
And they care as much as anybody
that I've met in the neighborhood.
♪♪
-We like it with the local community.4
-We'll be able to create and have more funding
towards the arts.
♪♪
-He was ready as soon as he saw it happening.
They were so welcoming. They just said,
"Pick up a can. Give it a try."
-Writing my initials, but in spray paint.
-He's doing great. He's living the dream.
[ Laughter ]
-It makes people smile.
It helps promote our vibrant city.
-It's cool to see how X number of dollars can look this big,
or it can look this big.
♪♪
-It's something that's healing for all of us,
especially coming back from COVID,
especially working constantly,
trying to keep up with the prices of Seattle.
Like, art is -- it's freedom,
and it's healing for all of us.
And I think it's something that we all benefit from.
♪♪
-From wall art at eye level
to an elaborate design in the trees.
We'll take you to the Arboretum as "CityStream" continues.
♪♪
This time of year, trees get plenty of attention,
brightly wrapped, presents fill their base,
and hundreds of tiny light bulbs make them shimmer and shine.
At the Washington Park Arboretum,
trees hold a different allure.
Blending art and nature
by embracing a dramatic new sculpture called "Union."
Brian Callanan has the story.
♪♪
-Alright, ready? -Ready.
-Installing one of John Grade's sculptures
isn't just a walk in the park.
-I would stop there, John.
-His latest creation, called "Union,"
took a crew of a half dozen people pulling...
...and adjusting...
-Just testing. -...to lift 220 pounds of art.
-Go a little bit more. You're still slack.
-And you won't find any walls in this gallery.
This piece hangs above a path in the Washington Park Arboretum,
providing what Grade sees as a union of art and nature.
-That's the big message, you know,
can we bring these things together,
and what does it do for our thinking about the natural world
when we see something like this?
-The sculpture, approved by
University of Washington arborists,
is bolted into eight trees
and suspended with stainless steel cables.
"Union" spans more than 100 feet,
with a combination of fishing line netting
and the true magic of this sculpture,
elongated ovals of blue and green resin,
cast in laminated ceiba wood.
There are more than 6500 of these cast resin pieces
in the sculpture.
They are intended to look like
the cell structure of a tree.
-John was really interested in tree cells, specifically.
-That's Quinlyn Johnson,
who worked with Lindsey Champlin
as the co-leads on the Union project.
Their task was to model this sculpture
after a fallen Western Red Cedar Grade found in Discovery Park
that had a trunk divided into two leaders
with two very different sets of concentric growth rings.
-One had many, many more growth rings
which were much tighter together,
and the other one had looser, fewer, half as many rings,
but doing all kinds of strange patterning and shaping.
-After creating the resin cells,
the project came together by mimicking the outline
of the growth rings,
which you can see from underneath the sculpture.
Even if you're laying down on the job.
-In the net,
you can actually see there's like strata
in the way the pieces are hung on the net
from like large to small pieces,
and then it starts over again, large to small.
-And looking closer,
no two pieces are exactly the same.
While the inspiration comes from a microscopic view
of the cell of a Western Red Cedar,
the perspiration comes from
nearly six months of casting work.
-When you're doing large scale sculpture or work in general,
you need a team.
-And it's a team of 15 artisans
with different backgrounds and expertise levels.
-And so that brings a lot of different perspectives
to the table, and it makes it much more interesting.
And also, there's a lot more possible
because of all the different perspectives and experience.
♪♪
-Ready? Three, two... One!
Yay! Alright!
-Providing a different experience at the Arboretum,
a living museum with more than 20,000 plants
from over 100 countries,
is what Christina Owen is all about.
-I'm a strong believer
that one of the keys to education and learning
is enjoyment and fun.
-Owen is director
of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens.
-This sculpture for me really sits at the intersection of art,
nature, and science.
-The U Dub has been planning the sculpture
for nearly two years,
and says the artwork will
not have a negative impact on wildlife.
-This is just part of one of those elements
that we can bring in to make the Arboretum a special place.
-And Owen is excited to see the special changes
"Union" goes through each season of the year,
weighed down by winter rain or sparkling in the summer sun.
-It looks different from different angles, too,
and it's just that continued representation
of just everything that is encompassing of life
and in the Arboretum and in trees.
-It's a changing sculpture for a changing world.
-I think this is very, very interesting.
It's a different way of creating art.
-But John Grade,
who's built hanging outdoor artwork like this
all around the globe,
has stayed grounded with one unchanging fact.
-I can never compete with the natural world.
So you're going to get more out of a tree
or walk in the forest than I'm going to be able to offer.
-Wow. It's super magical if you look...
-But that's just one branch of the "Union" story.
It's been said that great art picks up where nature ends,
but maybe art can do something even greater when the place
where nature ends is just the beginning.
-Hopefully what the sculpture will do is it offers
something more than what I'm trying to do.
It might give you a little window into this idea
that a group of people come together
to make something like this.
Then we sort of blend this natural world in
with kind of culture and with society.
And I think that's a nice thing to sort of,
as you're having a walk through this space,
just sort of contemplate that
after you've had the experience of seeing it.
-There we go. [ Laughter ]
-"Union" will be a temporary sculpture at the Arboretum
in place for about five years.
♪♪
And finally tonight,
this holiday season is packed with cherished memories,
family, friends, and traditions.
For producer Randy Eng,
one of his favorite holiday memories
revolves around this very spot, Westlake Center.
Back in the early '70s,
his dad would bring him here
to see a giant five story tall Santa Claus.
Fast forward 50 years and Randy wondered what ever happened
to that enormous Saint Nick?
After a little digging, he actually tracked it down.
And believe it or not,
the big guy turned up in the most fitting place of all --
the North Pole.
♪♪
-Ho-ho-ho-ho!
♪♪
-World's Largest Santa was actually originally created
in Seattle in 1968 to stand outside the Westlake Mall.
It was kind of a mall promotion for the holidays.
So, the merchant association actually contracted
with a gentleman by the name of Wes Stanley,
who ran Stanley Plastics in Enumclaw.
Before he did Santa, he did a number of dinosaurs
and things like that.
It was a massive scale compared to anything
that he had ever done before,
and he actually had to build a five story tall shed
outside of his workshop
to be able to put this Santa statue together.
He is actually a fiberglass statue.
He's got a steel frame work inside,
and then there's a wire mesh
that goes around the steel framework,
and then fiberglass is sprayed on outside of that.
I know that he spoke through a loudspeaker,
but I don't know if he ever waved the arm or smoked a pipe.
I would love to hear from somebody
who actually saw him standing outside Westlake Mall,
to know whether he really did that or not.
♪♪
Because he was a holiday-only promotion
outside of Westlake Mall,
it became too much to do,
so he actually stayed in storage.
He was bought by the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce,
where he stood outside the federal building for a few years
and then, again it became too much of a challenge.
So we bought him here to Santa Claus House in 1978.
The giant Santa really is the best billboard
that anybody could ever have.
We probably have well over $100,000 into this statue
to keep him standing even 55 years later.
♪♪
when you have a landmark of that magnitude,
they really take on a life of their own.
And you hear all these urban legends
about the world's largest Santa.
The funniest one that I've heard repeatedly
is that his belly is actually a Volkswagen Beetle.
There is not a Volkswagen Beetle
inside the world's largest Santa.
There are a couple of other places in the world
that actually will do giant lighted Santa as well,
but my understanding is that they're temporary.
Our Santa is the only year-round Santa
on a scale of that magnitude.
So really, our giant Santa is the last one standing.
♪♪
-That wraps up this edition of "CityStream"
from Seattle's Westlake Park.
If you'd like to see more outstanding
Seattle Channel programs, go to our website,
SeattleChannel.org, and search for "feature shows."
I'm Enrique Cerna.
Thank you for watching, and happy holidays.
♪♪