Soldiers get gift of Christmas trees

Fayetteville, N.C. — A national charity gave hundreds of Christmas trees to Fort Bragg soldiers and their families this weekend, letting them bring a little Christmas cheer home.

Hundreds of eager families welcomed three Fed-Ex truck filled with 850 fir trees pulled up to the Noncommissioned Officers' Club parking lot on Reilly Street. Workers with Fort Bragg's Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation division handed out the trees as part of the Christmas Spirit Foundation's "Trees for Troops" campaign.

Some soldiers were still waiting after all the trees were gone, but FMWR staff took their names and email addresses for a future delivery. The charity promised to bring 450 more Christmas trees.

"We awere amazed at the generoisty of the Christmas Spirit Foundation who donated all of these trees to our troops. We were so excited about 'Trees for Troops' that we quickly pulled the FMWR team together to help with this incredible effort," said Lori Bruschi, chief of FMWR marketing.

"Once we began to coordinate with key players, everything just fell into place. ... Several volunteers came for trees and decided to stay to help," she continued.

Many of the soldiers wouldn't have been able to get a Christmas tree on their own, Bruschi said.

The Christmas Spirit Foundation has delivered tens of thousands of Christmas trees to active-duty soldiers across the United States and around the world for the past four years.