Trees for Troops began in 2005 as a collaboration between FedEx and the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, the charitable branch of the National Christmas Tree Association. Since 2005, the program has donated more than 300,000 trees to bases in the U.S. and overseas. The Ellms Tree Farm has been a part of the effort since its inception, and owner Garth Ellms says that the program is a way to give back to troops for their service.
“We're here enjoying our freedoms, and they're out there protecting our freedoms," he said. "So to give them a Christmas tree, to give them that sense of home, selfishly, means a lot, and we'll continue to do it forever.”
According to Ellms, 17 farms, nurseries, and garden centers have donated trees and more than 25,000 have been donated nationwide per year.
Retired Colonel Richard Goldenberg, a member of the New York National Guard, has been a volunteer for Trees for Troops since 2006, and said that he was glad to see how much it has grown since then.
“It's been sustained for well over 20 years, 21 years now, and it's really an indication of just how much community support there really is here in the Capital Region," he said. "All of our communities have some ties to the military. Schenectady has the 109th Airlift Wing that flies to the South Pole every winter. The 42nd Infantry Division Headquarters, which is over in Troy, they're currently deployed, and that was the unit I deployed with over 20 years ago.”
Air National Guard member Elizabeth Felix is a first-time volunteer who said she was excited for the opportunity to contribute to the program, knowing how her friends who have been deployed miss home during the holidays.
“It's such a hard time," she said. "I have friends who have been deployed and Thanksgiving time, Christmas time is such a difficult time for them, being away from the family, and it's such a good thing to have this organization helping them, let them know that somebody is thinking of them.”
Goldenberg also said that the program was a meaningful way to make service members deployed abroad feel at home.
“The holiday season means so many things to so many different people, but showing our support for those military families is probably the most important thing we can do,” he said.
This year's event comes days after the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 26, which killed 20-year-old U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, and injured 24-year-old Sergeant Andrew Wolfe.
The volunteers with Trees for Troops include veterans, retirees, and current service members from the Capital Region, and even including those who received trees when they were deployed.
Staff Sergeant Mitchell Mihalko, also a member of the Air National Guard, first participated in the program in 2021, and then received a tree when he was deployed overseas in Qatar.
“Seeing both ends of it, being able to give one then being able to receive one, I just thought it was really cool to know that not only can I help out my fellow service members, but knowing that they also care about me,” he said.
Mihalko said that getting the gift of the Christmas tree meant a lot to him and his fellow service members.
“When I received it, it really just made me feel at home," he said. "Of course, being in the desert without any snow or trees, you don't really feel a Christmas spirit. But when you walk into that workplace and you see a tree there all decorated up, it really means a lot to us.”
