CAPE MAY — Fifty families of deployed Coast Guard members here received free Christmas trees Dec. 1-2 as part of the Trees for Troops program.
CWO Donnie Brzuska, public affairs officer for Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, said the trees went to junior members, E5 rank and below, those who would be deployed or working over the holidays and single parent families.
The Coast Guard Cutter Vigorous is currently deployed, he said. The crew has saved three lives and helped repatriate 172 Haitian migrants.
“Their families were able to take advantage of some of the trees,” said Brzuska.
While a Christmas tree cannot replace the presence of a loved one during the holiday season, a tree can add holiday cheer to an otherwise empty home, he said.
Training Center Cape May will have 90 persons deployed during the holiday season. Company commanders and training staff continue the mission of training recruits through the holiday season, said Brzuska.
The center has been receiving Christmas trees since 2009, he said.
Brzuska said the gift of Christmas trees demonstrate to Coast Guard members how much they are appreciated over the holiday season.
This year marks 100,000 trees delivered by Trees for Troops since the program began in 2005. Trees for Troops is a program of the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation. Since the program’s inception in 2005, Christmas tree growers from across the U.S. have supported military families by providing 84,000 farm-grown Christmas trees to military families.
For the past several years, FedEx has helped deliver, on average, 17,000 real Christmas trees to 60-plus military bases throughout the U.S. and overseas.
The Christmas SPIRIT Foundation developed plans for a national Trees for Troops program that could unify the individual programs of tree growers and state Christmas tree associations and partnered with FedEx Corporation to provide the tractor trailers, shipping and logistics for the Christmas trees to be picked up from tree farms across the U.S. and delivered to military bases.
In 2010, Trees for Troops delivered more than 17,200 farm-grown Christmas trees to all branches of the military.
Approximately 400 trees are shipped overseas for troops in the Middle East; the rest are distributed to military families throughout the United States. The trees are provided by more than 800 Christmas tree growers and retailers in 29 states.
Town Bank – STOP sending OUR money to countries all over the world and giving it illegal immigrants in various forms as Americans are dying in the Southeast. CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME!
