Tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers won’t be home for Christmas this year, so one Dubuque County tree farm is sending Christmas to them.
Ethan Bahl says Christmas just isn’t Christmas with out a tree. That’s why Ethan, his dad Doug, and the rest of the family are donating six Christmas trees from their farm and sending them to soldiers. “The trees — cut fresh — will last quite a while,” Doug Bahl says. “A fresh cut tree — six to eight weeks no problem.”
The Bahl family will drive the trees to Des Moines. Then Fed Ex will ship them to military bases all over the world. Those six trees from the Bahl Farm are part of a much bigger project. “This is kind of a national effort and a statewide effort for the Trees for Troops Campaign, along with the SPIRIT Foundation and Fed Ex,” Doug Bahl says. “It just kind of feels nice to do something that will take a little bit of home to these people that are giving so much to us.”
Hundreds of growers in the U.S., like Bahl, are collectively sending 11,000 Christmas trees to the troops. The trees will be shipped out Dec. 5 and will start arriving at military bases a few days later.