11/29/07 Trees For Troops

Trees for Troops. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Three years ago a group was formed to provide an extra special holiday treat for some of the men and women in the armed services. It is called Trees for Troops and according to Glen Thornton, owner of Thornton's Treeland. THORNTON: Their objective is to send free Christmas trees to military families on military posts primarily they are in the U.S. but also some in Afghanistan and Iraq and some of the other countries and then on naval ships. The objective is to send 17-thousand trees and I think based on what I've seen so far they have probably exceeded that goal this year. Giving out over 17-thousand trees is quite a monumental task when it comes to figuring out how to get them to some of these remote locations but Thornton says another group has taken on that challenge. THORNTON: FedEx actually does the transportation of course that's what makes it feasible. The Christmas tree growers provide the trees however this year because of interest from 2005 and 2006 the public wanted to be involved so this year the public is invited to donate a tree for the Trees for Troops program. Thornton has been growing Christmas trees near Vancouver, Washington since 1970 and got involved with the program because of his years in the service. THORNTON: I remembered I was single when I was drafted into the Army which was back in 1955 so it was no big deal for me but I was on the post with a lot of married men and in those days a married draftee received a $40 a month allotment which didn't even pay the rent. And then of course you know we have a lot of military families on military posts now and I don't know what the pay scale is but I know it's an encouraging thing for them to receive a free Christmas tree so that is the whole idea that they would receive free tree. Thornton expects to donate around 300 trees to the program this year which will take place this weekend. THORNTON: I'm one of many, many, I'm doing 300 trees. You know us as individuals we're pretty small part of the program but we're glad we're part of it. For more information on the Trees for Troops program and how you can donate a tree, visit their website at treesfortroops.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.