By Megan Venable
Meet Rebecca Thornhill, who, among many other things, is currently serving as chair of this year’s Fantasy of Trees Gala. Her role in this important fundraiser benefiting Children’s Hospital was foretold many years prior to this, on her very first visit to Knoxville.
Rebecca, a North Georgia native, met her husband Chad as an undergraduate student at Furman while he was studying at the University of Georgia. Upon graduation, the two got married, and got busy in graduate school; she studied law at UGA, and he, medicine at the Medical College of Georgia. It was a lot of driving, but Rebecca says, “I was used to a lot of time in a car. It was hard, but it was easy to be singularly focused on school with no kids.”
She finished her degree in three years and clerked for a federal judge in Georgia, but med school for Chad was a total of 12 years, ultimately taking them to Houston. Although they enjoyed their time in Texas, both Rebecca and Chad knew they would come back to Georgia and the southeast.
Then the call came from East Tennessee Children’s Hospital here in Knoxville, and the thought of moving to Tennessee was presented to the young couple with a growing family. “I will never forget this,” she laughs. “My first thought when I heard we might move to Knoxville was ‘but I don’t look good in orange!’”
On their very first fact-finding visit to East Tennessee, Chad and Rebecca made a stop at the Fantasy of Trees. And she was hooked from the very start. “I knew immediately that this was where we were supposed to be,” she says. “I loved it. We have gone every year, and I knew I wanted to be involved for a long time.”
After a few years of life as Knoxvillians, the call came for Chad to start a program at a hospital in South Carolina. It was an absolute dream assignment for him, and even though the thought of leaving Knoxville was heartbreaking for their family, it was one he couldn’t turn down. The Thornhills broke the news to their children, Charlie and Caroline, that they would be moving to a new state. “They were devastated to leave. There were tears everywhere,” Rebecca recalls of the experience.
After two years in South Carolina, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital reached back out and offered the same opportunity to start a similar program at the facility in Knoxville, and the Thornhills rejoiced. “When we told the kids we were moving back to Knoxville, we couldn’t get started back home soon enough," she says. “They wanted to leave that same day. We live in God’s country now and we are never leaving.”
When she was asked to chair the Gala this year, she jumped at the invitation. “As someone who loves Christmas, it’s such a lovely way to open up the season,” Rebecca says. “The women on the committee have a lot of ties to the hospital. It takes so much of their time and effort, and it’s so important to them that they be proud of the event.” She also credits the team at Children’s for their tireless work to create this annual magical evening, especially Angie Howell, Zaineb Saied and Haley Reeves. This year’s theme is ‘Enchanted Forest’ with Mackenzie McKinnon as the designer of the floral components of the evening.
She enjoys being part of this unique event that is such an important fundraiser for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. It is a strolling dinner with extra features that make it different than other galas. “I am most looking forward to seeing all the work of the last seven months come together,” Rebecca says. “I am in awe of these women’s who put on such a seamless event.”