Emcee Hank Booth congratulated crowd members for showing up despite the icy weather. Then, he got down to the business of auctioning Christmas trees.

“Three-hundred dollars, now three-fifty! Let’s give this tree a little more money for The Shelter!” Booth said, clutching a microphone as he wandered through the crowded floor of Liberty Hall. “I know you’re having fun out there, folks, but now it’s time to go to work. Three-fifty is bid, now four-hundred where? Four-hundred where?”

Booth was egging on a crowd of more than 250 who had turned out for the 20th annual Festival of Trees auction, a benefit for The Shelter Inc., which provides services for abused and neglected children and juvenile offenders. The auctioning of wreaths and trees alone raised about $33,000 on Wednesday night, but the total amount raised at the event wasn’t yet available.

Of the 55 creatively decorated trees for sale, the one that sold for the highest amount was “Dr. Seuss is on the Loose at VNA and Hospice,” donated by the Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn. and Hospice Care. It fetched $2,600.

Those attending the auction said it’s an event they don’t want to miss each year, in part because of the festive atmosphere and innovative trees, but largely because of the cause.

“It’s for the organization. It’s not about buying a tree,” said Lawrence banker John Elmore of U.S. Bank, who said the chances he and his wife would leave with a tree were 100 percent. He said he usually ends up putting the tree in a bank branch or donating it to another organization.

Elizabeth Patton, 8, browses the decorated evergreens at the Festival of Trees exhibit at Liberty Hall. Festival organizers auctioned off the trees Wednesday at the annual holiday fundraising event, which benefited The Shelter Inc.

Part of the fun of the auction, he said, is getting people involved in bidding and keeping it going, so that each tree has two or three interested bidders.

The crowd included community leaders, event sponsors, volunteers and employees of The Shelter, as well as tree donors such as Kenton Knowles of Global Homes Design Inc. He partnered with Vinland Valley Nursery to create a tree built out of recycled metals, including copper, aluminum, screens, an old tire rim, and a piece of a conveyor system that he’d found in a junkyard.

He said the buyer of the tree would receive a free home-energy audit.

“It’s a good cause, and we had fun doing it,” he said. “It’s a way to advertise your skills and talents and turn them into positive energy.”

Rebecca Shupert, assistant director of The Shelter, said she thought it was a good turnout despite the weather.

“It’s something we look forward to every year,” she said. “It’s really a great time for everybody to get together and mingle and let the community know what we do.”