12/01/07 (4:50 p.m.) As the
national Christmas tree, cut from Vermont's Green Mountain National Forest,
makes its way to Washington, it's going to spread some holiday spirit at
veterans facilities along the way, thanks to the National Association of
Realtors.
Local realtors will make donations to veterans shelters or a
veterans housing fund at each stop on behalf of the organization, Mary Trupo, an
NAR spokeswoman, said. The Vermont Association of Realtors also is making
donations.
"As soon as we heard (about the stops at veterans facilities), we jumped on
board to be a part of it," she said.
Trupo noted that according to a recent report, veterans make up 25 percent of
the nation's homeless population, though they're only 11 percent of the
population at large.
In addition to the donations at each stop, and another made in Las Vegas during
the National Association of Realtors annual meeting, the organization is working
with Congress to address the issue of homeless veterans. Trupo said the trip
with the tree was one way individual realtors could get involved with the
effort.
"This is sort of a launch for us to do more," she said.
For the time being, the smiles and gratitude of the veterans along the way will
suffice, said Brenda Jones, a member of the Vermont Association of Realtors and
the Bennington (Vt.) Chamber of Commerce, the lead sponsor of the national
tree's trip. She's traveling with a group that includes eight retired crew
members of the USS Bennington.
"We've been to two facilities so far, and the veterans are so pleased that we
have come in to see them and we're actually taking the time to come and sit with
them," Jones said Nov. 20. "They just totally welcomed us. It was wonderful."
To help extend the holiday spirit past their visit, some of the 80 companion
trees that are traveling with the 60-foot balsam fir national tree are being
left behind at each of the 12 stops.
Recently the group paused in Danbury, Conn., to serve Thanksgiving dinner at a
church that feeds the homeless.
On its way to the Ellipse in front of the White House, the tree is scheduled to
stop at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., as well as Walter
Reed Army Medical Center here.
While the national Christmas tree waits on the Ellipse for the annual Pageant of
Peace to be lit on Dec. 6, Congress will hold its own ceremony the day before.
Three individuals are scheduled to help light the congressional tree. Two are
winners of a Vermont ornament-making contest. The third, Phil Landis, a San
Diego realtor, earned one of the National Association of Realtors' five annual
"Good Neighbor" awards for his work with Veterans Village of San Diego, an
intensive rehab and training facility for homeless veterans. Landis, a Vietnam
veteran who earned a Purple Heart and a Combat Infantryman Badge, is on the
organization's board of directors.
by Samantha L Quigley
