COVID-19 cancels Centerville group’s decades-long Christmas tree sale

Credit: FILE

Credit: FILE

The Centerville Noon Optimist Club has canceled its Christmas tree sale for 2020 due to COVID-19.

The annual event, usually held behind the Centerville License Bureau off West Spring Valley Pike, has been a tradition for nearly 50 years, club members said.

Each year it involves hundreds of club members who sell more than 1,000 Christmas trees, according to the club.

The decision came “after much discussion” and was due to “health concerns and the pandemic uncertainty,” club President Debe Dockins said in a release issued Monday.

The tree sale is one of three major fundraisers for the club, members said.

It makes up about 25% of the annual donation and grant budget each year for a club that raises about $200,000 for youth programs, scholarships and youth-oriented nonprofit organizations in the community, organizers said.

“We love selling more than 1,000 Christmas trees annually and celebrating with the community,” said Dockins. “We are extremely disappointed that we have felt the need to cancel the sale for 2020.”

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