What started with Jim Ward sending one Christmas tree to his daughter serving in Iraq has exploded into a national campaign with 5,000 miniature trees being sent to troops overseas.
Ward, of Westminster, wanted to send a tree to Army Spc. Luisa Gonzalez, but the post office last year wouldn?t haul a full 6-footer.
“I was eating dinner one night and said, ?Charlie Browns.? That?s the answer,” he said, referring to the 2-foot conifer he eventually sent her.
But he said he realized other servicemen and servicewomen could use some Christmas cheer, so he gathered and sent 75 more trees.
Ward?s Operation Christmas Tree gained publicity during the past year. He received $100,000 in donations nationwide and bought 5,000 live trees from a farm in North Carolina.
Nearly 350 volunteers took eight hours recently to package the 2-foot-tall trees with lights, batteries and ornaments. Each tree cost about $10.
“Let?s put it this way, there wasn?t a lack of work here,” said Army Reserve Capt. Opher Heymann, who helped package trees.
“The trees just kept coming and coming.”
But the response Ward has received from soldiers and their families made the project worth the effort.
Last week he said he received a letter of thanks from a mother whose son was serving in Iraq. She wanted to donate $100 so other soldiers could get a taste of Christmas.
“The response was just unbelievable,” Ward said. “I?ve gotten letters ? it would make you cry to read some of them. Here?s a woman who lost her son, and she?s worried about other people getting a part of their holiday.”
One family came from Arizona to package trees; another local woman wrote to Ward with a donation, telling him her co-workers decided to help fund Operation Christmas Tree rather than exchange gifts.
Ward?s only complaint is that $34,000 went to mailing the trees to New York first. If the military would ship them, “I could send another 5,000” trees, he said.
