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Virginia's first lady |
VIRGINIA Carroll
Her husband, John, has spent time recently pulling together the state's effort to collect Christmas trees from Virginia growers to send to military bases around the world as part of "Trees for Troops."
And in the meantime, the Louisa County couple has spent hours at their own Christmas tree operation at Claybrooke Farm near Lake Anna, grooming and pricing trees they'll begin selling Friday.
"It's a busy time of year, no doubt about it," said Virginia Carroll, who spent her early years on the Louisa County farm where the couple planted their first Christmas trees in 1984.
Her year got busier this summer when she was elected president of the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association.
That's why she was on hand when grower Ronnie Richardson from the Mount Rogers Tree Farm presented the first lady the tall and statuesque Fraser fir he grew that won the VCTGA's annual tree contest.
"Richardson, who we know well because we sell his Fraser firs at our farm, also supplied a very large tree that will be used in the Capitol building, well over 20 feet," she said. "It'll be quite a feat to get that one up."
She said the presentation of the tree for the governor's mansion went smoothly. She and her son, Tyler, joined first lady Anne Holton and other state officials for coffee and Christmas cookies.
"It was quite an interesting morning," said Carroll.
The event helped her underscore the point that folks purchasing a Virginia-grown Christmas tree will be taking part in the same "buy local" effort being pushed for Virginia agriculture.
"And our products are one of the few that are local and fresh in the month of December," she said.
John, as well as sons Tyler and Matthew, have been working to collect some 15,000 live Christmas trees for Trees for Troops.
Carroll said their Claybrooke Farm will be one of the four collection spots around the state in the effort, with hundreds of trees arriving from growers in the region next week.
Tree farms and businesses in Louisa, Caroline and other local counties will be sending about 250 trees.
Other gathering points will be in Middleburg, Whitetop and Radford, with the state total expected to be about 1,000 trees.
"This year, our trees are going to Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico and Fort Hood in Texas," said Carroll. "They try to shift that around every year, so our trees go off to different regions."
All the trees are transported by FedEx, a partner in the Trees for Troops program.
claybrookefarm.comRob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com
