The Optimist Club of Mechanicsville would like to thank the community for all its support over the past year, especially in the current economic times. It has been a great 2012 for the Club which was honored to be able to give back to the community it serves.
The Optimist Club of Mechanicsville just completed its Annual Christmas Tree Sales Event. This event has been held since 1983, starting with less than 100 Christmas Trees place modestly in the parking lot of Earl’s Barbecue in Charlotte Hall. Earl’s is no longer there, Rita’s of Charlotte Hall resides in that building now and the area has changed so much. In the following years the trees sales slowly grew and the sites had to grow as well. The Club moved its Christmas tree stand lot to Club Sunrise in Charlotte Hall (now Burger King) and latter was rooted for many years at Bailey’s DJ’s One Stop in Mechanicsville.
While at DJ’s the Christmas Tree Event grew to its largest size, a 600 tree event, and the Club grew with the event. In the late 80’s McKay’s Food generously allowed the club to set a Northern Stand up in its parking lot. Since then the club has endeavored to maintain two Christmas Tree Lots. In 2010 due to growing concerns and issues with loss prevention, the Mechanicsville Volunteer Fire Department generously donated its Carnival Lot as a new stand and staging area. The Club has always interacted with other community service organizations and the MVFD / MVRS has always been a large part of the Club’s annual operations as well as membership!
At one time the Christmas Tree Event was the largest fundraiser for the club but as times changed so has the Club. Now the Club’s Monthly Texas Hold’em Tournaments with the MVFD Ladies Auxiliary has become the largest fundraiser for the club. With about 65 Club events a year, the Christmas Tree Event still requires the full effort of the Club’s membership to cover the week night and full day weekend shifts. As always the members pulled together and with the help of local community service workers provided by the St. Mary’s County District Attorney’s Office, 128 4-hour shifts were manned and 400 Christmas Trees were sold!
The Club’s Members used their own chain saws to trim their customer’s trees, used their own vehicles to deliver trees to some select clients, donated their own firewood to keep members warm, and donated their time during the times when most people are shopping or gearing up for the holidays. During the many years of Christmas tree sales the members have heard many stories of all the return customers, customer’s generosity, and the many trees that had to be tied to vehicles roofs.
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