By Marie Elium
The cardboard boxes, rumpled cartons and plastic containers have handwritten descriptions of the onetime-treasures inside. Ornaments. Nativity sets. Santas.
Volunteers with Donna’s Christmas Trees may know what’s inside the donated boxes, but they’ll never know the memories that were once attached to them by someone at some time. They only know — hope — those same items can make new memories for families in need this year.
The Lake County nonprofit is one of hundreds of small Northeast Ohio organizations that do big things with big hearts and little money. Donna’s Christmas Trees, founded by Rob Trhlin to honor his late sister, collects and gives holiday decorations, lavishly decorated trees, lights, ornaments, wreaths and other cheery seasonal chattel.
Now in its fourth year, Donna’s Christmas Trees volunteers will host holiday Deck Your Halls giveaway parties (by invitation), partnering with a group that buys gifts for families with older kids (Erie Street Miracles), Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, schools, businesses and other organizations.
Trhlin has cultivated a supportive and enthusiastic network of supporters and volunteers who lend space, time and muscle. Among partners are Lake Erie College, Forbes House, the Sisters of Notre Dame in Chardon, and Fred Frisco, president of Re-Education Services in Lake County, an alternative school for students with special needs.
Joyful & Full
It’s the latter connection with Frisco that brings volunteers to Room 8 at the school’s Mentor campus. Tables, shelves, closets and corners are jammed with holiday decor — even a couple of menorahs. The classroom is large and sunlit from a wall of windows that lend a mood-brightening lightness to the space.
What appears to be a jumble of stuff is, on closer look, sorted into categories that will make transportation and setup easier later. Strings of lights have been untangled, checked and bundled; clear in one bin, colored in another. Wreaths line closet shelves, waiting for volunteers to custom-decorate them for clients.
It’s a colorful collection of everything Christmas… Garlands, snowglobes and elf hats in every style you can imagine and some you’ve never seen. It’s a lot, and it doesn’t even include dozens of artificial trees, which are housed in Trhlin’s house and in a storage unit nearby. Somehow, it all works.
Volunteers have spent hours over the past few months hauling and sorting the donations, most collected throughout the summer. Since it started, over 300 trees and hundreds of decorations have gone to more than 550 families throughout the region.
Like Christmas Morning
Susan Pestello has fun opening donation boxes. Sometimes, an ornament or trinket is a reminder of her own childhood holidays, each box like an early Christmas present. Valuable vintage items are set aside and, with the permission of the owner, sold to raise money for the organization.
“Every time you open a box, you’re opening someone’s memories,” says volunteer John Tomaselli.
Soon, he and other volunteers will transport, set up and decorate Christmas trees for the parties. If someone needs a tree or wants other items, they make their choices and the items are packed and carried to their cars. The workers thoughtfully display every item and tree, creating a festive, boutique-like setting for the shoppers. Presentation is vital to the experience, allowing participants to “slip away from a chaotic life and feel special,” as Trhlin describes it.
“At the events, you think that an item isn’t going to go and then someone falls in love with it,” Trhlin says. “You never know what triggers that memory and special time. And for the kids, we always do a Secret Santa (shopping area) to give kids an opportunity to understand the power of giving.”
Collecting, storing, sorting and transporting trees and decorations is labor-intensive. “This is a road show,” Trhlin says.
The goal is to get a warehouse so the ‘Deck Your Halls’ parties can have a permanent home without packing and repacking items and carrying them to events. A building would allow people to drop off items at the same place they’re sorted and given away.
Donna’s Christmas Trees collects items throughout the summer. Trhlin has discovered that there’s no shortage of nice, used Christmas trees and decor. He relies on word of mouth and Facebook posts to collect trees and decorations. Money is another matter, as is true for most charities. Cash helps organizers buy what they need, when they need it. For Donna’s Christmas Trees, it’s warehouse space.
Over the years, including this one, trees and decorations are given to families in need, some from shelters who are moving into their own places after a period of upheaval and uncertainty. They have many needs, and Christmas decorations aren’t on the list for most of them.
Trhlin says, “As frivolous as it may be, we give a small slice of hope to people who’ve been taken away from everything they’ve known.”
Who’s Donna?
Rob Trhlin started Donna’s Christmas Trees to honor the spirit and memory of his sister Donna who was born in 1964 with a rare heart condition called transposition of the great vessels. The two main arteries leaving the heart, the aorta and pulmonary artery, were reversed, starving her organs of oxygen.
Donna became known locally as a miracle girl because she battled through numerous high-risk surgeries. Her dad Don spread the word about Donna’s medical issues and incredible spirit, drawing attention from newspapers, TV stations and organizations throughout the area.
Never knowing if a holiday would be her last, the Trhlin family made sure each Christmas was special for Donna because it was her favorite holiday. Community support, family love and Donna’s positive attitude ultimately were not enough. She died at age 22.
To Give
Donna’s Christmas Trees announces fundraisers and collection dates throughout the year on its Facebook page and website, donnaschristmastrees.com. The best way to support the tax-exempt charity’s work is by giving money through Venmo or the website.
Photography Kim Stahnke
