From childhood memories to recycled treasures: A Holiday Tree Festival tradition comes full circle

Carrie Soful has been donating trees to the Akron Children’s Holiday Tree Festival since the mid-’90s.

For Garfield Community Learning Center teacher Carrie Soful, decorating a tree for Akron Children’s Holiday Tree Festival brings together family memories, environmental education and a little holiday creativity.

When Carrie (Nasrallah) Soful decided to decorate her first tree for Akron Children’s Holiday Tree Festival in the mid-’90s, her mother wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea.

Fresh out of college and home for the summer, Carrie wanted to create a tree decorated entirely with ornaments made from recycled materials.

“My mother had a fit. She said you are not going to make a trash tree and put our name on it!” Carrie joked.

Carrie went ahead with her idea anyway. Keep Akron Beautiful sponsored the tree, and it turned out to be a hit. Peter Burg, then president of FirstEnergy, purchased it for his granddaughter’s school.

There was an added twist to the story. Peter and Carrie’s father, retired Akron Children’s physician Dr. Phillip Nasrallah, had a history as baseball rivals.

“My father teased him for years about purchasing my trash tree, but I guess the kindergarteners loved it, so I was encouraged to do more,” she said.

More than a decade of donated trees later, what began as a summer project has grown into a holiday tradition that introduces generations of students to the possibilities of recycled art.

Carrie pictured with mom, Lori, and dad, Phil. Her dad, retired pediatric urologist Dr. Phillip Nasrallah, spent most of his career at Akron Children’s.

A family connection to Akron Children’s

For Carrie, Akron Children’s has always been more than a hospital. It’s a place filled with childhood memories of visiting her dad at work.

“I used to love going to see my dad at his office and looking under the microscope. I enjoyed it when he’d treat me to lunch in the cafeteria. He would jokingly tell the cashier to put in on (his co-worker) Dr. Burnstine’s tab,” she said.

Those memories make her continued involvement in the Holiday Tree Festival especially meaningful.

One of Carrie’s donated trees.

Turning discarded materials into holiday treasures

Carrie teaches in the Energy and Environmental Protection Career Pathway at Garfield Community Learning Center in Akron. The program introduces students to careers focused on keeping communities healthy through sustainable practices. This includes renewable energy, organic agriculture, parks and recreation, water treatment and waste management.

Students get hands-on experience growing plants in the school’s new geodome and operating its recycling and composting programs. They also learn about material cycles and the effects human activity can have on the environment.

For Carrie, creating ornaments from discarded materials is a natural extension of those lessons.

“I’ve been trashcrafting for quite a while,” she said. “Over the years it’s become my favorite art form. Making ornaments for that first tree might have been the start of it, and since then, it has been a project I’ve shared with all my students.”

Carrie’s students create recycled ornaments for the tree each year.

Including the next generation

The annual project takes students through three important steps in the recycling process: collecting discarded materials, creating something new from those materials and redistributing the finished product.

The final step happens when someone purchases their decorated tree at the Holiday Tree Festival.

Over the years, students have found some imaginative ways to give everyday objects a second life.

One memorable ornament came from former student Sara Shookman, who went on to become a television news anchor at WKYC in Cleveland.

“She made an adorable whale for our tree using the leg of a pair a jeans someone had cut off and dryer sheets to create the spout of water being sprayed as it breathed,” said Carrie.

Years later, while reporting on the Holiday Tree Festival, Sara recalled participating in the project. Her co-anchor joked about the generous person who must have purchased the recycled tree.

Carrie still laughs about the exchange.

“There have been some very good-hearted people who have purchased our trees,” she said.

Students in Carrie’s Energy and Environmental Protection Career Pathway creating ornaments from recycled materials.

A new generation puts its creativity on display

This year’s tree, appropriately titled “Play It Again Rammy,” continues the tradition of transforming discarded materials into one-of-a-kind holiday decorations, while affectionately incorporating the school’s Ram mascot into its name.

“Many of my students have incredible art skills, and I’m happy to be able to showcase their art for the Akron community,” Carrie said.

While the finished tree is a chance for students to show off their artistic talents, Carrie hopes they gain something more lasting from the experience.

“I hope this project teaches them how to look closely at the resources that we commonly discard,” she said.

She also sees the project as an opportunity for students to contribute to something bigger than themselves.

“I love that this project gives my students a chance to be artistically creative and give back to their community by helping make something that will help provide funding for Akron Children’s,” she said. “I also like that it gets us in the mood for the holidays.”

A tradition that keeps giving back

Carrie still attends the Holiday Tree Festival each year, often stopping near her tree to see how visitors respond. She especially enjoys hearing from people who recognize her work or tell her they spotted her tree among the festival displays.

“It always brings a smile when people reach out to me and say that they went to the festival and saw my tree,” she said. “I hope it inspires people to make their own recycled art.

“I’m honored to have to opportunity to do something I love to help raise money for the hospital that took care of me and my family and millions of others in our community over the years,” she added. “The goal of environmental protection is to keep your community healthy, and Akron Children’s is an important part of that.”