The Uptown Optimist Club is unloading trees and preparing for its annual Christmas Tree lot fundraiser in Great Falls.
Jana Rehm, president of the Uptown Optimist Club, explained, “Our motto is 'Friends of youth,' and we raise a lot of money for kids in the community. We support Big Brothers-Big Sisters, the Boys and Girls Club, Alliance for Youth, and a number of activities that help children in the community.”
The Uptown Optimist Club has been doing the Christmas tree lot fundraiser for more than 30 years, and it’s the largest fundraiser they do each year.
“It's really good because it gets us involved with community. We get to see a lot of the kids that we help,” said second vice president, Eric Schroedel, also known as Santa.
Santa also said nothing they do could be possible without the community’s support.
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“I’ll tell you what, I have been to this tree lot many times and I’ve been to the striping, all of this. The community just, they’re helpful and I’m glad we can do something for the community, locally,” Schroedel said.
“We raise a lot of money at the Christmas tree lot; normally on average, over $20,000 a year. It does bring quite a bit of funds into the club so that we can help support those youth in our community,” Rehm said.
They will have a variety of trees, both small and big, from grand firs to ponderosa pines. They will have about 975 trees for sale this year.
“The Great Falls Americans (hockey team) are helping us; they help us unload every year because we do unload a lot of trees,” Schroedel added.
Rehm explained, “There are three farms that we're supporting and they're all individually, independently owned. There are some that come from Columbia Falls, some that come from Sandpoint, Idaho, and some that come from Anaconda, Montana.”
According to Santa Claus, if you would like to support the Uptown Optimist Club’s mission by purchasing a Christmas tree, you should go early.
“We do sell out fairly rapidly,” said Schroedel. “We start Friday, the 29th, the day after Thanksgiving, we will be open at 9 a.m. and we'll close at about 8 p.m.”
The Christmas tree lot is inside the beef barn at the Montana ExpoPark.
Click here to visit the Uptown Optimist Club website.
