Fairhaven tree sale tradition will be back

December 08, 2007 6:00 AM
FAIRHAVEN — As **** and Vivian Douglass headed into the seventh holiday season since they began their Christmas tree sale, they faced a dilemma many businesses would enjoy: too much demand for too little supply.

"The success of the tree sale led to there being a shortage of inventory," said Mr. Douglass, who with his wife owns a tree farm on Sconticut Neck Road.

The shortage forced the Douglasses, who donate all the proceeds from the Christmas tree sale to ALS research, to cancel the sale this year.

Over the six years they have conducted the sale, the Douglasses have raised $95,000, with more than $20,000 coming in from last year's sale alone.

"All the money, every single penny, goes to the charity. There's nothing taken out," Mr. Douglass said. "People like it, and you like to feel good at Christmas, I guess."

Canceling this year's sale was not easy, he said, but they had to give their trees a chance to catch up, and they wanted to be fair to all the people who have supported the sale in the past.

"It was a hard decision," Mr. Douglass said. "In large part because we've got something going, and you hate to let it drop, because it's been successful."

He added, "The weekend is a lot of fun because it brings together a bunch of people that we wouldn't necessarily see."

Last year, they sold nearly 400 trees. This year, they didn't have nearly enough trees at the size most people want.

The Douglasses plant 700 to 1,600 new trees every year, and it takes the trees about eight years to grow to 6 to 8 feet, the most popular tree size.

"We knew a lot of people would be disappointed," Mr. Douglass said. "We've got several thousand (trees); it's just that they're not all 8 feet tall."

The idea to raise money for ALS research through the Christmas tree sale came from a simple matter of timing. "Just about the year that the trees were ready to be sold, one of our sons was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease," Mr. Douglass said.

Lou Gehrig's disease, the colloquial name for ALS, is a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, according to the ALS Association Web site. As the disease progresses, it attacks voluntary muscle action, and patients in the later stages of the disease might become completely paralyzed.

There is no cure for ALS, so the Douglasses decided that all the money raised through their tree sale would go to organizations that conduct research on the disease.

The first year Mr. and Mrs. Douglass held the sale, they thought they would sell 60 trees at most, according to Mr. Douglass. Instead, they sold a couple of hundred.

"People have been coming for all of those years," Mr. Douglass said. "They're bringing their friends, and it just really grew."

The Douglasses do little advertising, relying on mostly on word of mouth.

"It's real low-key," Mr. Douglass said. "I guess you'd call it stealth marketing."

Stealth or not, it has worked. The sale has grown considerably, and the Douglasses hope all of those people return next year when they resume the sale.

"My guess, we have at least 800 or 900 trees that should be full size by next year," Mr. Douglass said.

Contact Charis Anderson at

canderson@s-t.com
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/...NEWS/712080337