>> are you in the mood for one more? they are so fabulous, the san francisco boys chorus. [ applause ] ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪we wish you a merry christmas

♪we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year ♪good tidings we bring to you and your kin ♪we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year ♪we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year ♪good tidings we bring to you and your kin ♪we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year. we wish you a merry christmas, and a happy new year. ♪ happy new year ♪ ♪ [ applause ] >> did i mention, grammy award

winning, san francisco boys chorus, let's hear it for them. [ applause ] >> watch how disciplined they are leaving the stage too. if all kids were like that, maybe i would have one. >> it is going to be a great ceremony at city hall, look around, if you have been here you know what a beautiful honored spot we are in, if you have never been to this city hall, it is yours, come by some times, there are meetings going on and business happening but also celebrations of all kinds. tonight is one of those celebrations, we are going to be lighting the tree here at the top here. the beautiful tree of hope. and we have some more entertainment for you before we get to the program and a little bit more music and some of you are mildly singing along. no minds if you sing along as

long as you know the words and sing. >> tammy hall, an accomplished key board artist and she is going to play for a little bit. tammy hall, everyone. ♪

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♪

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♪ [ applause ] . >> no wonder she is all over town, tammy hall on the electric piano. and let's add another mix to it, and we have a very talented vocalist who is also everywhere i see. i turn the paper and there she is, let's welcome veronica clout. >> thank you. [ applause ] ♪

♪i can only give you love that lasts forever. ♪ ♪and i promise to be near each time that you call, and the only heart i own ♪ will be yours and yours alone. ♪ ♪that's all, baby that's all. ♪i can only give you country walks in springtime ♪

♪and a hand to hold when leaves start to fall ♪ and those christmas lights is going to warm your christmas night. ♪'s that's all, baby that's all. ♪ ♪there are those i should have told you. ♪they are going to give you, give you the world ♪

all i have is two arms to enfold you ♪and the love that time cannot destroy. ♪ ♪if you are wondering, you will be glad to know... ends are so small. that it is me that you adore ♪from now till forever more.

♪that's all, baby ♪that's all. ♪ that's all. ♪ [ applause ] ♪ ♪have yourself a merry little christmas ♪ >> make the yule tide bright.

from now on, our troubles will be out, out of sight. have yourself a merry little christmas ♪ make the yuletide gay. ♪from now on, our troubles will be miles away, miles away. ♪ ♪ ♪we are in older day, happy golden days of yore ♪

♪faithful friends who are dear to us will be kneer to us once more ♪through the years, we all will be together. >> hang a shining star on top of the highest bow. ♪

♪have yourself a merry little christmas now. ♪ ♪ ♪have yourself a merry little christmas. let your hearts be light ♪

♪from now on, our troubles will be out, out of sight ♪ ♪have yourself, a merry little christmas. make the yule tide gay. from now on our troubles will be miles, miles away. ♪here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore. happy friends who are dear to us gather near to us once more. ♪

>> through the years, we all will be together ♪if the fates allow. ♪until then we will have to muddle through somehow. and have yourself... a merry little christmas now. ♪ >> thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> i am in the holiday spirit

now, aren't you? let's hear it for tammy hall and veronica klaus. >> i got jealous for a minute there, some of the members of the san francisco boys chorus are getting more pictures than i am. as you look around this room, think about the events that you have been to in the city hall in this one rotunda or one of the offices and so many wonderful weddings and so many celebrations and so many heart rending speeches and yes, some sad occasions too. all a part of our community and our beautiful city. as you look around this room tonight, what a diverse combination we have. it makes me smile, but it probably doesn't make nebraska smile. we live in a richly diverse

city and our elected officials represent it and our events here represent it and the tree lighting should represent it and indeed it does, we call it the tree of hope. and every year we get messages from all over the country and all over the world that are put on origamis and put on this very unique, unusual tree. >> there are many cities that have holiday trees, but no one has the tree of hope. it was started by an organization and now i will have the chance to introduce you to that organization's founder and executive director. who failed to put this in the proper amount of type here. no little things happen. the sound is better, i think that you can hear and i just have to go slowly, they told me, it is my pleasure to introduce the executive director of the rainbow world fund. this organization creates this holiday tree now, this is the

7th year. let's hear for that, 7 years of anything is a long time [ applause ] rainbow world fund was founded 12 years ago, the concept and wanted to think locally but he wanted to act globally. and indeed, he has figured out a way to strengthen the lgbt community by reaching out to the world on their behalf. rainbow world funds a powerful force, compassion, concern, rainbow world fund helps others by promoting philanthropy on cross the world and they have distributed 4 million dollars in humanitarian aid to communities in need around the world. let's hear it. ♪ i know that he thinks big, but i wonder if he thought that

big that they would be going to cuba and helping one person at a time and tonight, helping kick off the holiday season in san francisco, welcome, founder and executive director of the rainbow world fund, jeff cauter. >> thanks donna and that great introduction and i must say that you look particularly fabulous tonight. >> if you are not familiar with the rainbow world fund we are an international service agency based in the gay and lesbian and transgender and friends community. so we are gay and straight people coming together. and what we do is we work within our community to educate people about issues of

humanitarian aid and world need. and as we raise our community's consciousness, we fund and we raise funds to support relief efforts all around the world. our projects focus on, education, hunger, safe drinking water, and disaster relief, and all kinds of different ways of helping people. we have ongoing projects in cambodia, haiti, and south africa and helping out in areas just as the tsunami in south east asia and the earthquake and tsunami in japan and last year, and during hurricane katrina we tributed one mill object pounds of food aid. [ applause ] >> and all of that is coming from the lgbt and friends community.

so we work as ambassadors for our community and we help change people's minds and hearts about who we are and what we care about. besides providing humanitarian aid, we try to inspire hope in all of our projects and we have found that hope is really just as important as aid, if not more so. and we have worked with a lot of communities in desperate situations arounded world and we found that providing a little bit of humanitarian aid and a lot of courage and hope it is amazing that people in desperate circumstances can do to improve theirs life. so seven years ago we really have a feeling that in the united states, we really need to increase our hope also. and we decided to do that by creating a global art project, the world, tree of hope. and what you see behind you is

a live, 23-foot christmas tree and it is covered with 10,000 pieces of oragami and most of it is white cranes and all of the white cranes on the tree are inscribed with people's wish and hopes for the world. merilee put out an invitation that goes out virally through the internet and we ask people what they want for the future of the world and share it with us. and wishes are send in all over north america and europe and africa and really we have got wishes coming in from almost every country in the world now. and people are just expressing, all kinds of amazing hopes and dreams for the future of the world which is really encouraging for us. we create the tree as a symbol of the global unity and hope. and we are going to continue to add wishes to the tree all through the month of december. so we would love for you to go

to our website which is rainbow fund.org and it is free and we will printout your wish on a piece of paper and fold it into a crane and put it up on the tree. now, i want to thank, some key people who helped with this year's tree. first i want to start off with our core team, our core creative team and that consists of karin kai and linda mihara and thank you they have been working on the tree for seven years. >> and this year we have the help of dozens of volunteers and i want to particularly acknowledge the university of berkeley alfa, fi omega service community and volunteers from one brick.

aid for good, the san francisco chapter. and you guys are here. the bridgemen. the left coast theatre. skip and the staff of martini's bar. yeah. and berny man and we had a bunch of burners helping us this year. yeah. and also, of course i would like to thank the mayor's office of neighborhood services and city hall events department. we worked them for seven years and they are always wonderful. and so thank you. >> it was his idea in the beginning. he must be very proud. that is a beautiful tree. and there are hundreds of cranes, when you look at it from here, it looks like it is

snow-covered the tree. but you are in san francisco, that is not snow, those are oragami and each one has to be folded and it is an incredible project. i always thought of it as something that they just kind of did in class that you were bored, but no it is an art form and it makes a beautiful tree and behind all of that creativity is a person whose name was just mentioned. she has been here all seven years, linda mahara and she is a professional oragami artist. and you may know her work and not realize that you know her work. she has done professional training for febrese disney and pixar and she is here today because this is part of her labor of love, the world three of hope. let's welcome linda. mihara.

>> thank you, donna, that is a wonderful introduction and you do look magnificent. >> you too. >> thank you >> this is a labor of love. this is my 7th year of participation, i get a call one day from jeff cauter and he said that he had this concept for the tree and he had heard about the tree about sadakal and it is a famous story that was true that was the inspiration for this tree. i came on board because i am the professional oragami artist and the story of sadako goes in japan if you have a wish that you want to have come true, you fold 1,000 cranes, and by the time that you have finished your 1,000th crane your wish will be granted so during the hi