Mike's Trees
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This is the history behind the Mike’s Trees tradition:
Mike Young, attorney at law, was my boss for a couple of years. Mike was a quiet, gentle, kind, hard working man. Mike died unexpectedly in 2006. The year Mike died I started a tradition in his honor. This is the story of how that tradition was started:
Mike had given me a gift certificate for a Christmas tree the year before he died. Since I already had an artificial tree, I wasn’t going to use the certificate. So instead of it going to waste, I decided I would give it away to someone I knew. However, I forgot about it until Christmas Eve. At the last minute, I went to a tree lot on Oracle and Magee and sat in my car, praying and waiting for the “right” person to come along to give the certificate to. I think I sat and waited in the parking lot for almost an hour. But the wait was so incredibly worth it. Finally, a dilapidated van pulled up and a family of five spilled out. I knew instantly that this was the family to bless with a tree. (Not to stereotype, but you could tell they were in need. It seemed obvious to me that they waited until the very last minute to buy a tree - probably because they needed to wait to see if they could afford it after all the other expenses.) Excitedly, I jumped out of my car approached the family in the parking lot and extended the gift certificate, simply stating I’d like to bless them with a tree. The father and mother had a look of distrust on their faces (stranger danger – no one does this!). Likewise, the children were standing behind the parents in shock, except for one of the three children.
A little girl, about the age of 6, was clearly excited and happy to be receiving the gift. Her eyes were as wide as a deer’s in headlights and she was bouncing up and down with a huge smile beaming on her sweet young face and her head was shaking yes, yes, oh yes!
Reluctantly, the father and mother took the certificate from me and I walked away, wishing them a Merry Christmas. I sat in my car a while to see if it all went okay. Right away the father walked up to the desk and presented the certificate and, after confirming it was genuine, the family proceeded into the temporary forest of trees to pick out their free Christmas tree. I left with a smile on my face after seeing they were cleared to pick out a tree.
Needless to say, it was a remarkable and memorable moment for me (bring tears to my eyes even as I write this today).
The year after this first give away, Mike died unexpectedly in November. So in his honor, I went to a tree lot and paid for a tree and then gave the receipt to a random family.
Every year since then I’ve been going to tree lots around town to give away a tree. It first started out just me doing it from my own money, then my daughter joined me, then her friends joined us. Now it is a tradition my husband I do every year. A couple of years ago I started sharing the stories with the people who work with me at the law firm and some started donating money to Mike’s Trees.
The second year I gave out a tree, I typed up a letter explaining the inception of Mike’s Trees and have been giving the letter to recipients every year since then. In 2014, I started a Facebook page and so far 2014 has been the biggest year of giving out Mike’s Trees. We had corporate donations of $230 and someone at the office anonymously gave $100. In 2014, Mike’s Trees gave away 11 trees! In 2015, Mike's Trees gave away 14 trees.
This is the 10th Anniversary of Mike's Tree's. We are hoping it's a grand one!
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you find it a worthy cause to donate to. It sure does make Christmas in our Tucson community merrier!
Mike Young, attorney at law, was my boss for a couple of years. Mike was a quiet, gentle, kind, hard working man. Mike died unexpectedly in 2006. The year Mike died I started a tradition in his honor. This is the story of how that tradition was started:
Mike had given me a gift certificate for a Christmas tree the year before he died. Since I already had an artificial tree, I wasn’t going to use the certificate. So instead of it going to waste, I decided I would give it away to someone I knew. However, I forgot about it until Christmas Eve. At the last minute, I went to a tree lot on Oracle and Magee and sat in my car, praying and waiting for the “right” person to come along to give the certificate to. I think I sat and waited in the parking lot for almost an hour. But the wait was so incredibly worth it. Finally, a dilapidated van pulled up and a family of five spilled out. I knew instantly that this was the family to bless with a tree. (Not to stereotype, but you could tell they were in need. It seemed obvious to me that they waited until the very last minute to buy a tree - probably because they needed to wait to see if they could afford it after all the other expenses.) Excitedly, I jumped out of my car approached the family in the parking lot and extended the gift certificate, simply stating I’d like to bless them with a tree. The father and mother had a look of distrust on their faces (stranger danger – no one does this!). Likewise, the children were standing behind the parents in shock, except for one of the three children.
A little girl, about the age of 6, was clearly excited and happy to be receiving the gift. Her eyes were as wide as a deer’s in headlights and she was bouncing up and down with a huge smile beaming on her sweet young face and her head was shaking yes, yes, oh yes!
Reluctantly, the father and mother took the certificate from me and I walked away, wishing them a Merry Christmas. I sat in my car a while to see if it all went okay. Right away the father walked up to the desk and presented the certificate and, after confirming it was genuine, the family proceeded into the temporary forest of trees to pick out their free Christmas tree. I left with a smile on my face after seeing they were cleared to pick out a tree.
Needless to say, it was a remarkable and memorable moment for me (bring tears to my eyes even as I write this today).
The year after this first give away, Mike died unexpectedly in November. So in his honor, I went to a tree lot and paid for a tree and then gave the receipt to a random family.
Every year since then I’ve been going to tree lots around town to give away a tree. It first started out just me doing it from my own money, then my daughter joined me, then her friends joined us. Now it is a tradition my husband I do every year. A couple of years ago I started sharing the stories with the people who work with me at the law firm and some started donating money to Mike’s Trees.
The second year I gave out a tree, I typed up a letter explaining the inception of Mike’s Trees and have been giving the letter to recipients every year since then. In 2014, I started a Facebook page and so far 2014 has been the biggest year of giving out Mike’s Trees. We had corporate donations of $230 and someone at the office anonymously gave $100. In 2014, Mike’s Trees gave away 11 trees! In 2015, Mike's Trees gave away 14 trees.
This is the 10th Anniversary of Mike's Tree's. We are hoping it's a grand one!
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you find it a worthy cause to donate to. It sure does make Christmas in our Tucson community merrier!
Organizer
Jeannie Miller Weyrauch
Organizer
Tucson, AZ
