After 75 years, the Kiwanis Club of Trail has not lost a step.
Trail Smoke Eaters staff, Kiwanis members and volunteers unloaded hundreds of evergreens and cultured trees last week at Butler Park, inviting Trail families to start the festive season.
Residents can’t find a better deal or a more worthy cause than the Kiwanis club's Christmas conifer sale.
The conifer prices start at $30, and increase from there. A 10-foot tree is a very reasonable $60.
Funds raised by the non-profit organization are then invested back into the community and mostly directed to graduate scholarships.
“Buying trees from the local Kiwanis tree lot, you are supporting your local non-profit and the organizations that we give to,” said Chris Vlanich, Kiwanis president.
Last year, Kiwanis' Christmas fundraiser raised approximately $6,000, and supported Trail schools and grads.
Started in the late 1950’s, the Kiwanis Club of Trail started supplying Christmas trees to a local hardware store.
Sam Konkin was the store manager at Merry Mitchell’s at the time and a proud Kiwanian.
The club members initially rallied together with axes and saws in hand and headed into the bush.
Trees were dragged out by sled, loaded into pickup trucks, transported back to town and unloaded into the hardware store lumber yard.
Since then, the Kiwanis Christmas tree lot changed venues several times due to a growing demand.
Presently, the City of Trail kindly allows Kiwanis to set up cultured trees from eastern Canada and evergreens from the East Kootenay at the local baseball park.
Sales peaked in the early years at over 2,000 trees per season.
Recently, however, due to the decline in population and the use of artificial trees, sales have levelled off.
The trees are naturally harvested at Kootenay Tree Farms, regenerated and grown among a mixed forest of trees of all ages.
Kiwanis is also taking donations for the Trail United Church food bank, and funds can be dropped at Butler Park.
With every tree purchase, you will be entered into a $50 draw to Safeway.
"When you support Kiwanis, you support the community," said Vlanich.
Kiwanis is always looking for volunteers, as the sale goes seven days a week, Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekend.
