LA CENTER — It’s become a holiday tradition. For the ninth year, Lissa and Steve Boynton are donating trees from La Center Farms to military families through the Trees for Troops program.
A crew was at the Boynton’s farm Friday afternoon cutting down about 100 trees, which will be shipped to a U.S. Marine Corps base in California, Boynton said.
“I know what it’s like to be away from your family during the holidays,” said Boynton, who was with the U.S. Coast Guard for 20 years. “There’s a lot of meaning to the holidays and you do the best you can when you’re away from your family.”
Boynton said they usually donate about 100 trees every year, although one year when they had a lot of extra trees they donated around 400. The trees were mostly Douglas fir and average around 6 feet.
The Boyntons opened the farm in 2007 and found out about the Trees for Troops program the next year. They have participated in it ever since.
As the crew felled trees, taking maybe three seconds to cut down each one, Boynton walked the emptying portion of his farm to take a look at the trees.
“I want to make sure the trees I donate are good-looking trees,” Boynton said.
Trees for Troops is run through the Christmas Spirit Foundation. The program started in 2005 to bring farm-grown Christmas trees to United States armed forces members in all branches of the military and their families. Since starting, more than 176,000 trees have been provided through Trees for Troops.
Even with 100 or so fewer trees on the farm, things aren’t about to slow down for the Boyntons. In addition to donating the trees, they also run a U Cut tree farm where people can pick out their own tree to cut down and take home.
The farm also has free refreshments and a gift shop full of Christmas items, as well as a theater where guests can watch cartoons. They sell around 400 trees a year through the U Cut farm, Boynton said.
The family is growing about 7,000 trees on its five-acre farm, where the Boyntons also host a Frightland haunted walkthrough during Halloween. The farm, 31215 N.E. 40th Ave., La Center, is open 1 to 5 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 21. This weekend is usually the busiest of the year for the farm, Boynton said, with the weekend after Thanksgiving as the second-busiest.
“That’s how it goes,” he said. “You grow something for six to eight years, and you might have two weekends to sell them. If they don’t sell during those weekends, they might not sell at all. Then, next year, they get taller and then they might be too tall for people to put in a house.”
