It’s been another successful year for the Trees for the Troops program at Wahmhoff Farms Nursery in Gobles as it shipped out 638 Christmas trees to military bases on Monday.
The farm’s Betsy Wahmhoff-Perales tells us this was the 20th year they took part in Trees for the Troops, serving as a distribution hub for hundreds of trees grown all over the state. More than 100 people braved the cold Monday to help load up the trucks.
Wahmhoff-Perales says the farm was initially supposed to ship out 300 or so trees, but due to a bumper crop from a farm in Allegan County, they wound up with more.
“Because we more than doubled the number of trees donated from farmers this year, we were able to add two more military bases,” Wahmhoff-Perales said. “So doggone exciting, because a lot of the bases, they don’t get enough trees donated to take care of everybody on the bases.”
The trees are going out to Hurlburt Field in Florida, Fort Rucker in Alabama, Fort Polk in Louisiana, and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Wahmhoff-Perales says it was heart-warming to welcome all the volunteers.
“You can feel the excitement of everybody that’s here that loves our country. We love our country. So I want to say Merry Christmas to everybody and thank you to all the armed forces for keeping our country safe.”
Wahmhoff-Perales says some veterans who helped load the trees Monday have been doing it every year all 20 years that Wahmhoff Farms has been taking part. She thanked everyone who came out to support the event.
