Bushy Christmas Trees donates to Arlington Food Pantry - Wicked Local Arlington

Bushy Christmas Trees donates to Arlington Food Pantry - Wicked Local Arlington

Bram Berkowitz bberkowitz@wickedlocal.com @BramBerkoWL

As part of our Gifts of Hope campaign this year, The Arlington Advocate is partnering with the Arlington Food Pantry to help raise money for the organization. As you plan your year-end charitable donations, we will be bringing you a stream of stories throughout the holiday season about the pantry and how residents can make a difference.

As career letter carriers for the U.S. Postal Service in Arlington, Vincent Fratalia and his buddy Stephen Collins always chose the Arlington Food Pantry when participating in the company food drive.

“That’s been our organization,” said Fratalia, a letter carrier for over 30 years.

“Arlington is like my second home,” added Collins, now retired.

What started as a company-driven association with the pantry has now morphed into their own initiative, only this time instead of donating food, Fratalia and Collins are giving pantry clients a little Christmas spirit.

The two for the second straight year will donate 25 to 30 Christmas Trees this holiday season from their part-time business, Bushy Christmas Trees, to Arlington Food Pantry clients, continuing their longstanding relationship with the pantry.

Previously, Bushy Christmas Trees operated out of Walgreens at the Corner of Cameron and Massachusetts Avenues. But this year, they will sell their trees from the CVS parking lot at 833 Massachusetts Ave.

Pantry clients can obtain a certificate from the food pantry for a tree, and then bring it Bushy Christmas Trees, whose staff will cut and load the trees for them.

“It’s worked out great,” said Fratalia. “They (pantry clients) are very, very appreciative of the trees we’ve given them.”

Fratalia and Collins have operated as Bushy Christmas Trees in the community every December for the last eight or nine years.

Collins said he was delivering mail to the Walgreens they originally worked out of one day when an employee asked them to run a Christmas tree operation outside the store.

“I called Vinny and said ‘Let’s give it a try,’ and it took off,” said Collins.

The two first purchased trees from a man in New Hampshire, where they learned the business, but they now get their trees straight from a tree farm in Sherbrooke, a city in Quebec.

The trees come in during November and officially went on sale the Friday after Thanksgiving.

“It’s a family event,” said Fratalia. “Our kids and grandparents come down, we have about 20 to 25 guys unloading trees. It’s a labor of love.”

Collins said the two know most of their customers because while Bushy Christmas Trees is a business, Arlington, as Collins mentioned above, is his and Fratalia’s home away from home.

“We at Bushy Christmas Trees want to give back a little to the community we both love and have serviced through the Post Office for over 30 years,” said Fratalia.