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Pasco Kindergartners Help Harvest Governor's Yule Tree

Tribune photo by CHRISTINE DELESSIO

Lacoochee Elementary Kindergarten students help carry Governor Charlie Crists Christmas tree at the Ergle Christmas Tree Farm in Hernando County.

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By RONNIE BLAIR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 2, 2008

RIDGE MANOR - A Lacoochee Elementary School kindergarten class arrived at Ergle Christmas Tree Farm this morning wearing Santa hats and ready to embark on a special holiday mission.

Gov. Charlie Crist needed a Christmas tree, and these were just the kids for the job. They followed tree farm owner Tony Harris out among his prized trees, searching for one that seemed most gubernatorial.

With some prompting from Harris, who scouted this out earlier, the children found it, a 12-foot Southern red cedar that soon will grace a spot just outside the governor's office in Tallahassee, standing majestically beneath a 10-foot ceiling.

"It has to be shortened," Harris said.

Harris and his wife, Debbie, co-own the tree farm, which sits off U.S. 301 in southern Hernando County. Each year, a member of the Florida Christmas Tree Association provides the governor's tree, and the Harrises have had the opportunity to do so several times.

The Harrises like to share the honor. So Debbie Harris gave a call to Carol Boyett, an old classmate from Pasco High School who now teaches kindergarten at Lacoochee Elementary, a few miles south of the tree farm in Pasco County.

"I was really delighted when she asked us to come over to cut a tree for the governor," Boyett said.

Harris carried a saw to take down the tree, crawling beneath its branches. Apparently, the job became too much for him.

"I think I need a hand," he said to the children.

Mario Campos, 5, was ready for action.

Mario crawled beneath the tree, gripped the saw with Harris, and the two of them felled the great cedar together, preserving the holiday for the governor.

A parade of kindergartners grabbed the cedar and helped Harris carry it, singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as they brought in their prize.

"I've got some good helpers," Harris said.

He placed the tree on a machine that shook off loose needles.

"It's a dancing tree," Principal Karen Marler said as the delighted kindergartners watched the tree shimmy.

Next Harris put the tree through a baler that would wrap it in netting. He pushed the tree through one end of the baler, then pulled to try to get it to come out the other end.

Once again, he wasn't up to the task and turned to the children for assistance. Caleb Oakley, 5, stepped forward.

Caleb grabbed the tree, and together he and Harris tugged until the cedar came free of the baler, all netted up and ready for shipping to the governor.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib.com.

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