By Jason Emerson

editor

In what has become an annual tradition in the Cazenovia area, local businesses, organizations and individuals this week helped a national foundation gather and send nearly 100 Christmas trees to the families of military service members throughout the United States. Trees for Troops, a nationwide program of the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation in conjunction with FedEx Corp., made a stop at Critz Farms in Cazenovia to collect trees donated by Christmas tree growers throughout Central New York.

“This is just such an easy way for us to spread goodwill. It makes a difference for people who can’t be with their families during the holidays,” said Critz Farms co-owner Juanita Critz. “This year we worked more to engage our customers in the process by making them aware of the program; we had a good response and even had military families donating to other military families.”

With Trees for Troops, volunteers collect, prepare and load hundreds of donated trees onto FedEx Freight trucks to be delivered to U.S. troops and military families at more than 65 military bases in the U.S. and overseas. This year marks the 13th anniversary of the program.

Since 2005, more than 191,000 free, farm-grown Christmas trees have been provided through the program, with more than 18,000 real Christmas trees expected to be delivered this year, according to the organization’s website, treesfortroops.org.

In Cazenovia on Tuesday, Nov. 28, about one dozen volunteers loaded about 100 trees from four local growers onto the FedEx truck. Volunteers included the Critzes; Jon Kogut, owner of Spruce Ridge Landscape and Garden Center of Nelson, and one of his employees, Mike Crowley; and five members of Cazenovia American Legion Post 88.

“Post 88 is happy to play a small part in supporting our active duty service people,” said Cazenovia American Legion Post 88 Commander Dick Benner, who participated with other troop members in loading trees at Critz Farms for the third year.

The Critzes, who grow and sell Christmas trees on their farm, have been donating their own trees to Trees for Troops for years, during which the nearest collection point was in Jordan. In 2014, Critz Farms became a collection point for the program and helped recruit other local growers to participate.

The local tree growers and donors whose trees were collected from the Critz Farms collection location included: Critz Farms, Moore Tree Farm in Groton, Muncey Hill Tree Farm in Truxton, Page’s Christmas Trees in Manlius and Springside Farm in Fabius.

Also this year, Critz Farms customers gave money that sponsored 10 trees to be included in the overall donation.

The trees from the Central New York area that were loaded in Cazenovia will be shipped to Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

To learn more, visit TreesForTroops.org or call (800) 965-1653.