WESTBOROUGH – For families, picking out a Christmas tree together is a tradition.
At the Westborough Civic Club’s annual Christmas tree sale outside Hastings Elementary School, Civic Club members say they enjoy that tradition every single day.
“A lot of people, especially in Westborough, know what we do,” George Grosner recently told the Community Advocate. “…We appreciate them coming out to help us and support us.
The tree sale begins after Thanksgiving each year and runs until the club runs out of trees.
Civic Club president David Reynolds said one woman has been coming to the club’s tree sale for 20 years. As it turns out, the club had previously donated money to the family to help out her son.
“She was so impressed by the kindness that she’s come back here every year for 20 years to buy a tree,” Reynolds said.
The tree sale is the club’s only fundraiser. Funds raised go toward groups including the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts as well as the Westborough Food Pantry.
Business has been booming of late especially after the Civic Club sold out by mid-December last year.
They increased the number of trees purchased from their supplier this year. Even so, Grosner and his tree sale colleagues have said they expect inventory to run out soon.
“We might not have trees for much longer,” club member Mark Lippitt said last week.
The Civic Club gets two deliveries of the trees, wreaths and roping each year.
The club sells a variety of sizes of balsam fir trees from Nova Scotia, sourcing from a familiar supply of trees there.
Lippitt and Grosner both said demand for trees has been strong this year.
As news outlets have reported a Christmas tree shortage, Lippitt said the club hasn’t had any issues with supply.
That, Grosner said, is likely due to the Civic Club’s relationship with its tree supplier.
“Talking to them, they definitely had some challenges on their side,” he said. “But they were really working hard to serve their big and longtime customers. We’re definitely one of those.”
“If we didn’t have that long relationship and we needed to try to find a new one, that would have been really kinda tough,” he added.
The sale was still open as of Dec. 13, operating at Hastings Elementary School on weekdays from 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. There were less than a dozen small trees left, however.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct a misidentification of the Civic Club’s president. His name is David Reynolds, not David Webber. The Community Advocate regrets this error.
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