- November 27, 2024
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The final product of the Christmas Can Tree (Courtesy photos)
Bill Genovese, Bobby Lester III, Bobby Lester Jr., Bethany Genovese, Hope Genovese, 4, Chloe Genovese, 9, Emma Genovese, 12, Brandon Meyers, Bobby Lester, and Becky Lester
Emma Genovese, 9 and Chloe Genovese,12
Building the tree
Rebecca Lester lives in a neighborhood with nice houses and nice cars — but she knows not everyone is as fortunate. In an effort to give her neighbors an avenue to donate and to spread some holiday cheer with her grandkids, she and her family collected 840 pounds of food and turned it into a Christmas tree.
"We delivered flyers in our neighborhood to about 100 different houses," she said. "The original idea was to build a Christmas tree in our front yard, but it grew to be more than just that."
Together, they collected enough canned food to build a 6-foot tall tree — that was even 3-feet around on the bottom layer.
Neighbors donated, a Winn-Dixie in St. Augustine gave 400 cans, and Lester's grandson, Cody Lester, applied for an Action Team through Thrivent Financial where Rebecca Lester works. They provided him with $250 of "seed money" that he used to buy more cans.
The cans — which weighed a total of 840 pounds — were donated Dec. 17 to Halifax Urban Ministries.
"It will hopefully inspire others to do something similar," she said.
