The volunteers from The American Legion Post 21, Pinecrest Baptist Church and the Tifton National Guard Unit, along with the Brumbys and members of the White family.

TIFTON, Ga. — The final shipment of Christmas trees intended for Trees for Troops left the Brumby-White Christmas Tree Farm the morning on Dec. 8. 

Volunteers from the Tifton National Guard Unit, the American Legion Post 21 and Pinecrest Baptist Church in Cordele loaded dozens of trees onto trucks, trailers and military transports to take and distribute to military families.

The trees were paid for by individuals, businesses and organizations from around the Tift area, like the American Legion and the American Legion Auxillary, who purchased 30 trees between the two organizations. Commander Paul Moyer and finance officer Tommy Treadway were on hand to help put tags on the trees and load them onto the trucks.

The tags, which are placed on each tree, show who donated the tree and thanks the recipient for their service.

Tinie Stringfield, the Family Assistance Specialist for the Family Assistance Center, which is a resource for Georgia National Guard families, said that the trees would be going to families in Tifton, Thomasville, Valdosta, Cordele, Newnan, Griffin, Macon and Dublin.

Bill Brookerd, from Pinecrest Baptist Church in Cordele, said that the church’s military outreach program has been participating in transporting trees for Trees for Troops for ten years.

“Churches need to be more involved with the military, especially around Christmas,” he said.

After the trees were loaded, Stringfield presented Brookerd and Mike Brumby and J.H White of the Brumby-White Tree Farm with a certificate of appreciation for their dedication and commitment to the soldiers and families of the Georgia Army and National Guard.

The Brumby-White farm has been in operation since 1980, when Brumby approached White with an idea to grow a Christmas tree farm on land owned by Brumby.

At the height of their operation, they had 49,000 trees spread over seven fields and three generations of the White and Brumby families working together.

The farm planted 1,837 trees for their final year.