News - 2006 Nov 27

Christmas kickoff

By Beth LaMontagne
blamontagne@seacoastonline.com 

PORTSMOUTH -- While other Seacoast residents were sleeping in or at the malls Friday morning, Portsmouth Rotary members were working up a sweat unloading 800 Christmas trees for their annual holiday fund-raiser.

"None of us have been feeling guilty about the beer and wine we had yesterday," said John Lyons, chairman of the event committee.

"It's always a nice thing to do after Thanksgiving. I always enjoy this," said Rotarian Bill Hansen, who has been helping out with the tree sale since 1991 and whose son is involved as well. Hansen said setting up the stands and unloading the trees gets him in the holiday spirit.

"It's actually a lot of fun to sell them. It's a family event," he said.

For 26 years, the local Rotary club has been selling balsam and fraser firs to local families to raise money for the organization. Lyons said the Christmas tree sale, which started Thursday and will continue until all the trees are gone, will net the organization $35,000.

"This is significant because not only will it fund our programs but it will fund the international programs," he said.

About 30 people came to the Lafayette Plaza parking lot Thursday morning to unload the large flatbed truck that had just arrived from Canada. This is the first order of the season and another is scheduled to come in a few weeks. In all, the Rotary expects to sell 1,600 trees.

They vary in size and price, Lyons said, starting with the balsams at $35 to the frasers at $50 each. The Rotary is also offering decorative wreaths and its annual Historic House Holiday Ornament, this year featuring the Gov. John Wentworth House on Pleasant Street.

Mary Ellen Dunham, executive director of the Wentworth home, said having the building featured this year is "very nice" and brings attention to its historic significance.

Lyons said next year the ornament will feature the newly renovated North Church in Market Square.