Chub Lake Tree Farm near Carlton is once again taking part in a national effort called "Trees for Troops," with the local event scheduled for next weekend, Dec. 3-4.
Through 2015, more than 176,000 free, farm-grown Christmas trees have been provided to troops and military families in the U.S. and overseas through Trees for Troops. FedEx delivers the trees to about 65 military bases in the U.S. and overseas and has logged more than 653,400 miles in the U.S. for the Trees for Troops program.
The tree farm, owned by Bev and James Whorton and located at 1867 East Chub Lake Road in rural Carlton, will be assisted in the Trees for Troops efforts next Saturday and Sunday by volunteer members of the local Minnesota National Guard unit, Crazy Troop 1-94 CAV.
The National Guard members not only cut, tag and load trees on the FedEx trailer, but also help with customers' trees. FedEx has scheduled Dec. 5, as pickup day for trees collected at Chub Lake Tree Farm.
The general public is welcome to drop off monetary donations to support Trees for Troops.
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This is the 12th year of the program and the tree farm's ninth year of hosting a collection site for trees donated by them as well as other northern Minnesota tree growers, retailers, organizations and customers. The trees collected this year at the Whortons' farm will be delivered to MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Fla.
"The success of this event is not possible without financial help from our customers, organizations, retailers, other tree farmers, and the general public," said Bev Whorton. "We hope you will join us in saying 'thank you' and 'merry Christmas' to those who do so much for us each and every day."
Chub Lake Tree Farm is open each day from 10 a.m. to dark. For more information and directions, call (218) 384-4549 or look online at www.chublaketreefarm.com .
