Group sends trees, lights to troops overseas
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from the Winston-Salem Journal Holiday GuideChristmasCardsDirect.com, a personalized Christmas-card company, has partnered with Operation Christmas Tree and Home Depot to send 5,000 Christmas trees and Christmas cards to U.S.Armed Forces stationed abroad this holiday season.
Operation Christmas Tree was founded by James Ward in 2006 to send Christmas cheer to his daughter, Luisa Gonzalez, and her fellow soldiers deployed in Iraq. The first year, James and his friends and family sent 75 miniature Christmas trees with battery-operated lights and ornaments to his daughter and her unit.
Letters of gratitude poured in from the troops and Ward decided to continue sending the trees even though his daughter returned from the war zone last year. Operation Christmas Tree went from sending 75 trees in 2006 to now sending 5,000 trees with the help of contributions from the public and the support of ChristmasCardsDirect.com and Home Depot.
More donations are needed to pay the expensive shipping bill to get the Christmas Trees and Christmas Cards to the Troops. Donations can be made at http://www.operationchristmastree.com/donate.php.
Trees for you
If you want to cut or choose a Christmas tree in North Carolina this year, check out these online guides to choose-and-cut Christmas tree-farms in the Piedmont.
• The North Carolina Christmas Tree Association: Go to http://www.ncchristmastrees.com and mouse-over “Choose & Cut Farms” and then choose to search by city or area, or view all listings or download the 2008 choose-and-cut guide which contains a county-by-county listing of farms, plus advertisements and info about other attractions in the area.
• The N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services: At http://www.ncfarmfresh.com, click on “Visit a NC Farm Fresh farm,” and in the drop-down list below “Search for Farms that Have ...” select “Choose & Cut Christmas Trees.”
• The Eastern North Carolina Christmas Tree Association: http://www.nc-chooseandcut.com/cnc.html
