The Kiwanis Club of Grantville-Allied Gardens has elected, reluctantly, not to open its annual Christmas tree lot on Zion Avenue this year, bringing an end to their biggest fundraiser.
A staple in the community since 1988, the Kiwanis tree lot was a traditional stop for many local residents in need of a fresh-cut Christmas tree each year. While there had been some discussion in recent years about bringing the lot to a close, club members elected to make it official in 2015. The biggest reason behind the difficult decision was a declining number of able-bodied volunteers capable of lifting large trees and volunteering sometimes as many as 40 hours per week.
The topic of discontinuing the tree lot has been looming for several years as the club continued to sell trees each December. For more than a quarter-century, members of the G.A.G. Kiwanis Club could be found selling trees along Zion Avenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. However, with membership on the decline in recent years – and fewer active members unwilling or physically unable to help lift trees – the handwriting was on the wall. Just about everyone in the room knew that the tree lot would not survive into 2016. A last-ditch proposal by longtime Kiwanis member John Peterson would have kept a scaled-down version of the tree lot open for one final year, but the measure failed to gain enough support among active club members.
“This is not the end of the club,” said past president Joe Huston, making one last presentation from the podium. “Let’s look to the future. We say goodbye to a good project, and we open the door for something else.” Huston offered a couple of alternative fundraising ideas to the club, including a “Hole in One” golf tournament proposal, and a possible 5K run/walk or half-marathon in the Allied Gardens community or Mission Trails Regional Park.
G.A.G. Kiwanis wishes to thank George Harb and the Ascension Lutheran Church on Zion Avenue for use of their property and utilities over many years. Thank you to SDG&E for making room and allowing Kiwanis to open the tree lot during those times when the site was otherwise occupied with heavy equipment.
Above all, the members and volunteers of the Grantville-Allied Gardens Kiwanis Club wish to express their sincerest gratitude to the citizens of the community who have been so generous and so supportive to keep the Kiwanis Christmas tree lot open for so long. Please keep an eye out for upcoming Kiwanis events and fundraisers so that we can continue to support everyone’s favorite community programs and events.
––John Robert Crawford is Secretary of the Kiwanis Club of Grantville-Allied Gardens.
