As the festive season passed, in the blink of an eye for most of us, millions of beautiful Christmas trees will be taken down, stripped of their decorations and put out for recycling.
Around 25 to 30 million real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. every year and while they’re all renewable and recyclable, they do create a lot of waste.
Most of them are turned into mulch to help new plants grow but one man has come up with an ingenious way to use unwanted Christmas trees to help others.
U.S. Army veteran Jamie Willis, from Texas, uses old Christmas trees to create walking canes for veterans.
He opens his workshop in Copperas Cove, for anyone who needs a cane but his focus is veterans, being one himself.
“The whole process, it’s just done off donations. I make the canes myself. Everything’s done out of pocket,” Jamie told Action 10 News.
So far the generous veteran has made 200 canes for people across the U.S. and is appealing for people to bring him their old Christmas trees so he can make more.
David Garza, a veteran who is a grateful recipient of one of Jamie’s canes said he was left needing a cane to get around after “21 years getting in and out off of tanks and off of vehicles.”
Jamie runs the central Texas branch of the organization Free Canes for Veterans.
“I do this so I don’t sit home all day feeling sorry for myself,” Jamie told CNN.
Oscar Morris, the man behind the organization, said Jamie was the fifth veteran he knows to start their own branch of Free Canes for Veterans.
‘Act of kindness’
“It would be a blessing to get the word out for more veterans to do this,” Oscar said “It was the act of kindness and a piece of wood that was their inspiration.”
Jamie uses one tree to make one cane and it takes him an entire day. He then ships the cane out using his own money or donations.
This is in ingenious idea! Please share to help Jamie make even more canes for needy veterans.
