COEUR d'ALENE - Christmas trees and evening gowns sparkled during the 2013 Festival of Trees Gala in The Coeur d'Alene Resort Convention Center on Saturday night.

The event was sold out, attracting 450 attendees who enjoyed socializing, auctions, a raffle drawing, live music, dinner and dancing to raise money for women's and children's services at Kootenai Health.

"If you love women, if you love children, the intention is we want to make sure that if they have to use Kootenai Health, that we have all the best pieces of equipment to take care of them, that we have the state-of the art and that you don't have to travel away from here, that you could actually be taken care of right here in Kootenai County," said Kootenai Health Foundation president Shawn Bassham.

Special events coordinator Diane Murray of Coeur d'Alene said $376,000 was raised last year for neonatal intensive care, and this year's goal is $350,000.

"Everything's going really well," Murray said. This is her 14th year working on the Festival of Trees, which organizers work on for about nine months. She said the Festival Gala is one of her favorite parts of the four days of events.

"The room looks so beautiful," she said. "(Friday) it was fun to see all the trees come together."

More than 30 theme-decorated trees lined the room, efforts of area businesses and volunteers. For Bassham, of Coeur d'Alene, it's the nearly 1,000 volunteers who really make the Festival shine.

"The people here know how to give back in ways that you can't calculate," she said. "It's the tangibles, certainly, there are dollars, and then there's the intangibles of their lives that they're really gifting during a very hectic weekend in most people's lives. And they do it happily."

Cardiologists Mike Williams of Coeur d'Alene and Tim Lessmeier of Spokane work for Kootenai Health. They came to the gala to show their support for the hospital, visit with coworkers outside of work and have some fun while doing it.

"The fundraising from this has enabled some substantial expansions and developments and new services at the hospital that they wouldn't otherwise have," Williams said. "Prior to the program two years ago, every patient who needed a defibrillator or inflation got shipped to Spokane. And this has been able to keep a large number of North Idaho/Coeur d'Alene patients at this hospital for care."

Cardiac care received more than $360,000 from the Festival in 2011 and from 2003 to 2005 the Heart Center was the beneficiary, receiving more than $800,000.

"I think it's important to know the community has been incredibly supportive of this hospital," Lessmeier said. "And that's allowed this hospital to grow and develop things that ordinarily wouldn't be offered."

The Festival of Trees continues today with a lunchtime and dinner fashion show. Info: www.facebook.com/KootenaiHealthFoundation or www.kootenaihealth.org