By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Community members and staff of Lakeland Hospital Niles gathered Wednesday evening for the lighting of the Midge Tyler “Tree of Love.”
The lighting of the tree, in its 12th year, is a favorite event for many in the community.
For a donation, community members can honor or remember a loved one by illumination of a light on the “Midge Tyler Tree of Love.
A scroll listing the names of those recognized is displayed in the lobby of the hospital.
Midge Tyler, who was a long-time volunteer and supporter of Lakeland Hospital, helped to start the tree-lighting project.
This year's tree was lit by Martha Rentfro, a Lakeland RN Nurse Coordinator who left her job for three weeks to go and volunteer in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
Rentfro spent three weeks in New Iberia, La., which is about 50 miles west of New Orleans, where she worked in a distribution warehouse.
At the warehouse, Rentfro helped to coordinate the volunteers who would be working each day to process the truck loads of goods which were coming into Louisiana from all over the country.
Johnson shared with the crowd of about 40 that they should remember how it feels to give to others who are in need.