CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, New Mexico -- Approximately 200 Christmas trees were given out to Air Commando families through the Trees for Troops program this past week at Outdoor Recreation on base.
“This year was the first time in seven years I have been running Outdoor Recreation that we got rid of every single tree,” said John Underhill, Outdoor Recreation director. “It’s pretty special to see how excited people get over a Christmas tree, especially the young kids.”
Trees for Troops, a program of the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, provides free, farm-grown trees to United States armed forces members in all branches of the military and their families, through donations, sponsorships, grants and the work of many volunteers.
According to the program’s website, Trees for Troops has donated more than 191,000 trees since 2005 to military members both in the U.S. and overseas.
This year, Cannon’s trees were delivered Dec. 8 and within five days Outdoor Recreation was down to their last tree.
“Every tree, from the 5-footers to the 12-footers, are gone,” Underhill said. “It’s a pretty special program that I hope never goes away and as long as I’m here I’m going to continue to keep ordering trees every year.”
Underhill plans to possibly bump up the order to 250 trees next year to get Christmas trees to even more Air Commando families.