Program brightens soldiers’ holiday

Christmas trees were to be
collected for military
personnel who won’t be home for the holidays.

By MARC KOVAC

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — How do soldiers stuck in combat zones during the holidays keep their Christmas trees from becoming prematurely parched?

The same way their families back at home do — by cutting off a small portion of the trunk and keeping the ends immersed in water. Or, perhaps by planting their firs in wet sand.

That’s according to Amy Galehouse, a Christmas tree grower from the Doylestown area who coordinated Ohio’s Operation Evergreen on Tuesday at the Ohio Department of Agriculture headquarters in Reynoldsburg, in central Ohio. The effort aims to bring a bit of holiday cheer to soldiers stationed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, via sending home-grown holiday trees overseas.

Nationally, some 16,000 Christmas trees will be collected in coming days and weeks for military personnel who won’t be home for the holidays. In Ohio, about 300 trees and all the trimmings, donated from Ohio Christmas Tree Association members, school groups and others, were loaded into boxes and onto a truck for shipment out of the country.

The annual event takes place at the Ohio Department of Agriculture because all of the trees have to be inspected to ensure they are free of disease and invasive pests. Most of the trees were firs and white pines, Galehouse said.

“They’re [most] flexible,” she said. “They go into the box.”

Schoolchildren, church groups, veterans and others donated hundreds of Christmas ornaments and decorations, which were divvied among the boxes. Some included personal notes and cards from the farmers who donated the trees. Others had drawings from youngsters, audio recordings of choirs singing carols and other homemade odds and ends.

David Hill, a spokesman for FedEx in Uniontown, said the trees will be delivered to Indianapolis, then on to Paris, France, and then to Dubai. From there, they’ll be in the hands of the military, which will forward them to the troops.

Galehouse and other tree farmers who have donated trees often receive letters from soldiers who receive them.

“They send us pictures of the trees decorated,” she said.

Mahoning Valley-area farms that participated are:

UBailey’s Christmas Tree Farm in Lordstown.

U Bradley’s Tree Farm in Vienna.

U Kazimer Tree Farm in Newton Falls.

U Whispering Pines in Middlefield.

U D’Apolito’s Tree Farm in Poland.

U Pioneer Trails Tree Farm in Canfield.

U Stepuk Tree Farm in Canfield.

Don and Kathi Albertson, owners of the Cambridge Trading Co. and Christmas Tree Farm in Guernsey County, donated several Canaan firs, then spent an afternoon taping boxed trees and hoisting them onto a waiting truck.

The couple have donated trees every year as part of the Operation Evergreen effort.

“We’re grateful,” Kathi Albertson said. “They’re there, and we’re not. … If they were my kids, I’d like someone to do it.”