Dees’ delivers holiday cheer

On an unseasonably warm Dec. 5, Dees’ Nursery of Oceanside, DHL Express and a number of other organizations joined forces to spread holiday cheer to U.S. military forces abroad for the eighth straight year.

Officially known as DHL Operation Holiday Cheer, and unofficially as Trees for Troops, the annual event, which began in 2004 as an effort to fulfill a mother’s wish to send her son, who was serving in Afghanistan, a Christmas tree, has grown to include troops throughout Western Asia and Middle East combat zones, sending out hundreds of trees and thousands of thank-you letters from schoolchildren.

Once this year’s shipment of 500 Christmas trees reaches the American troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain and Kuwait, the total number of trees provided over the past eight years will surpass 5,000, according to Dominic Sardilli, director of operations for the JFK Gateway for DHL Express.

Lt. Dan Carbonaro of the Port Authority police, one of the founders of the Trees for Troops event, said that in the first year, participants sent 125 trees, which cost $20 to $25 each with ornaments. Carbonaro added that the effort would not be possible if DHL didn’t ship the trees for free.

“There were no Christmas trees for us,” Carbonaro recalled of his service in Vietnam. “I want to make sure these guys get treated the way they’re supposed to.”

He said that a lot of the credit for Trees for Troops goes to Jim Adelis, whose connections to DHL Express and the community helped create the event. Adelis’s son was serving in Iraq in 2004, and was among the soldiers who received the first shipment of Christmas trees from Trees for Troops.

A number of military personnel were on hand at the ceremony, many of whom had received trees themselves while overseas. “You know, you’re 8,000 miles away from your family. There’s no grass, there’s no Christmas trees and you’re stuck in an arid desert,” said Capt. Michael Montesano of the 42nd Infantry Division, who received a tree while in Iraq in 2008. “I saw guys walk around on circles of grass and say, ‘Oh my god, I’m home.’ It’s the public’s way of helping us, and they’re doing it at the hardest time.”