Christmas Spirit Foundation blog

Despite the nasty, rainy weather at Fort Gordon yesterday, approximately 575 families received a Christmas Tree through the Trees for Troops program.  The line began forming around 6:30 a.m. and by 11:30 a.m. all of the trees had been handed out!

All of the 575  trees came from farms in Georgia, which is years past, has not always been the case.  Kudos to all of the Georgia growers and retailers for their generous donations and great organization with coordinating pick-ups!

While at Fort Gordon I spoke with Teri, one of the coordinators of the program, who’s husband is currently deployed in Iraq.  Last year he was stationed in Korea (without the family) and was able to surprise Teri and her daughters with a visit.  Although this will not be possible this year, fortunately, they are able to talk on the phone and Web cam every day!

Nicole and her husband (see first photo below) just recently bought a house and were anxious to put up their first Real Christmas Tree together.  They walked around the peremiter of the FedEx trucks two or three times where the trees were stacked searching for the perfect one.  They finally found it as  you’ll see below.

Vanessa, the primary overseer of the program at Fort Gordon was so thrilled to see that trees had gone to good homes so quickly!  She had been at a meeting earlier that morning with the Garrison Commander.  While at the meeting she was telling a young soldier about the trees.  He quickly called his wife in hopes of going to get a tree.  He and his wife arrived just in time around 11:15 to pick out the second to the last tree (see photo below).  Vanessa was so excited that he was able to get one! 

After all of the trees were gone we were able to get this awesome photo of all of the younger soldiers who helped unload.  They celebratered as the last tree was handed out, which meant they could get out of the rain.  I asked them if they were able to go home for Christmas and they all said yes!