NORFOLK, Va. — The holiday season is coming to an end and a Norfolk woman is offering to take your live Christmas tree, off your hands, and take it down to the outer banks for sand dune restoration.
This is the second year Crystal Matthews has collected Christmas trees at her home in Norfolk.
“I’m the crazy tree lady," Matthews joked. “I love that people support this cause instead of just throwing the trees in the dumpster. It really means a lot to me.”
Last year, she partnered with Chicho’s Pizza and helped gather 2,400 trees, overall. This year, she has a personal goal of 750.
“There’s about 218 trees in my front yard, currently. It’s a big mound of trees," she said. "They’re just all lined up in the front of my house, on the side of my house. Last year, we threw them over the fence to make more room.”
She’s not doing it alone. Matthews said her friends have collected about a dozen trees, her father has 120 trees in his yard, and officials at Lowes Home Improvement has pledged a couple hundred trees they didn’t sell this year.
Boy Scout troop 117 in the Outer Banks is also helping to collect trees, locally.
Matthews is part of a local Jeep club. Together, on Jan. 9, she and other Jeep enthusiasts will load up their vehicles and take the once decorated trees to Duck, NC for dune restoration.
“Some people do have trailers and so they will pack them full with however many trees we can load," she said. "Some people prefer to tie just one to the top of their jeep and not pull a trailer. It’s all about the convoy, it’s all about the mission.”
If you want to donate your tree, Matthews asks that you contact her on her personal Facebook page.
