Although the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc upon communities in every corner of the world, the North Farms Volunteer Fire Department in Wallingford has offered familiarity and holiday cheer through its Annual Christmas Tree Sale.
Since around ten years ago, this volunteer fire department has been selling Christmas trees annually during the holidays. According to science teacher Ms. Ashley Bairos, who serves as a volunteer EMT with the department, the firehouse purchases around 400 trees every year from Canada and ships them to Connecticut a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Volunteers helped to set up the event by unloading the trees onto racks before preparing the trees to be sold. “We tag every single one, we price every single one, and we unfurl them and cut them,” said Ms. Bairos. “It’s a lot of manual labor.”
The volunteers also assist customers in wrapping and tying down the trees onto each family’s vehicle.
The money raised during the sale supports the firehouse, as well as important community organizations like Master’s Manna, which helps relieve food-insecurity among homeless and low-income families.
The event was also an opportunity for families to interact with the members of the firehouse. “It was really about bringing families to the firehouse, getting to know our neighbors, bringing kids through the firehouse, and letting them see the rigs, trucks, and all the cool stuff,” said Ms. Bairos.
While many Wallingford families, including Choate faculty, buy their tree at this sale every year, the event also attracts customers from out of town. “One family that came in said that they moved to New Milford this year after living in Wallingford for their whole lives, and they still came here to buy a tree,” said Ms. Bairos.
The event has become an easy way for community members to reunite and share the holiday spirit with one another. The sale “started as fundraising, like a general way for the volunteer department to raise money, and then it morphed into this community event, and that’s what it really is now,” said Ms. Bairos.
