Fifth grade students from Herricks School District’s Center Street Elementary School helped share homegrown holiday spirit with members of our Armed Forces as they sent holiday care packages and participated in the annual Trees for Troops program.
On Dec. 5, the students joined teams from DHL, local fire departments and other groups at Dees’ Nursey in Oceanside for the Trees for Troops endeavor, which has sent over 15,000 Christmas trees to service members serving throughout the United States since 2003. After helping load the fresh trees onto trucks, they joined the convoy to JFK airport where they helped transfer the trees to cargo planes that will carry them to their final destinations, including over 90 military bases throughout America.
In addition to lending their time and energy to Trees for Troops, the students put together care packages and wrote holiday cards to soldiers, thanking them for their service and wishing them a safe and happy holiday. These packages will make their way throughout the world to bases as far away as Germany and the Middle East. In fact, the students have already received an email from an Army unit stationed at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait who received their package and wrote “that while it is tough to be away from their families during the holidays, reading these letters brightened everyone’s day.”