By Daniel Hamon
For those who have lost their jobs, hope or faith, Sharon Girulat offers comfort in the form of a Christmas tree:
Two years ago she phoned the owner of a Frosty Farms lot and asked if she could have some leftover trees. They gave her about 50. She and her husband Rollin delivered them, along with decoration kits they made up, to some churches. Last year she called Frosty Farms again, as well as Johnson Brothers tree farm. She got another 50 trees and recruited a few colleagues to help make the deliveries.
This Christmas, 50 turned into 500. Peltzer Pines, which has several farms in Orange County, offered up 350 trees when Sharon came knocking. She put an ad on Craigslist, asking people to sing out if they had lost their job or their hope or their faith, and would find comfort in a Christmas tree.
There were a lot of touching responses including the following:
Sharon was surprised by the number of men who wrote to her saying they lost their job this year and for the first time can't afford Christmas. Many of them volunteered to help deliver trees to others in exchange for the one they were taking.
Photo - Leonard Ortiz
Comments