Trucker Uses Downtime to Donate

Last year, James Ward, started Operation Christmas Tree to send a little bit of the holidays to his stepdaughter and some of her soldier friends while she was deployed in Iraq. This is not his first foray into the large scale charitable donations, but this one has certainly taken off. Last year Ward oversaw an operation that shipped 75 trees; this year they will probably ship 5000 trees.

Ward, a laid-off trucker, also arranged a convoy to get much-needed supplies to victims of natural disaster the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Families paid $20 to Ward's nonprofit for small spruce trees and decorations that were sent to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Another nonprofit, the Armed Forces Foundation stepped in to cover some of the costs and other donations were collected from business in Ward's area.

In addition to these donations, Ward had a lot of help to make all of this happen. Because the trees were bought early, they had to be kept alive until it was time for the mailing and the fire department stepped in to water them.

Volunteers helped Ward and his family to pack the trees in early December. The family and the volunteers worked in rented tent. The volunteers were replenished with barbecue that was donated.