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December 7, 2012
Farm shares Christmas experience through yule trees By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcnews.net
The calendar said Nov. 23 and the thermometer read 30 degrees, agreeing that the Christmas season had arrived. At the St. Joe Christmas Tree Farm, customers pulled carts deep into the fields surrounding the St. Joe Road headquarters. A trolley circled the fields of fir, pine and spruce trees. Wind swirled around the barn and against the workers bundled in overalls. One machine shook needles from trees, and another tree bundled the trees in baling twine. Beyond the open doors of the red shed, workers shaped wreaths of green branches and wire. Shoppers chose wreaths and carried them to the gift shop. Families paused for hot chocolate or coffee. Beyond the commotion, Judy Reifenberg dealt with the details of yet another opening day. She said she and her husband, Mike, make sure customers experience the fun of the Christmas tradition. “We just try to keep it really upbeat,” she said. “We offer the families time to come out and have family time together.
So not only do they get to spend time together, get out in the country, have some hot chocolate and coffee, and have a little train ride, they get to take a tree home. After they purchase it, of course.” Families will have that option at the farm through Dec. 19. Some area farms will end their seasons earlier, and some later. The Boyer and Zimmerman families visited the farm, in keeping with a 20year family tradition. Phil and Pat Boyer, of Woodburn, said they don’t study the trees as carefully as they used to. “We’re getting older now, so we just take the first one that looks good,” Phil said. Their daughter, Angela Zimmerman of Leo, was accompanied not only by her parents but by her husband, Kirk, and sons Michael, 13, and Troy, 7. Michael crawled beneath the branches to cut his first tree, for his grandparents. He then repeated the process for his own family. While the rural appeal of the farm remains constant, the top-selling tree has changed. “Now it’s the Fraser fir,” Reifenberg said, “but 10 years ago Scotch pine was No. 1.” “I think it’s because it’s a softer needle and they have more open spaces,” she said. “And they’re just a
Polar Plunge to make splash for Special Olympics By Valerie Gough vgough@kpcnews.net
Courtesy photo by J Michael Photography
Two brave plungers step off a platform into a recycling bin filled with cold water during the 2012 Polar Plunge at Parkview Field. schools to participate in the plunge. But last year at Homestead High School, she got much more than that. Jordan Blevins, then a junior at Homestead, sidled up beside Fiechter to tell his peers about the fun, excitement and purpose of the Polar Plunge. The event benefits
Special Olympics athletes such as Blevins with Down syndrome or other intellectual disabilities. “I said ‘Jordan’s going to take the plunge this year. He’s collecting money so if any of you have any money you want to donate to the plunge, he See PLUNGE, Page A15
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It takes courage to stand in front of a crowd of people and ask for money. It becomes all the more difficult when it’s a group of teenagers — arguably the toughest room around. Julia Fiechter, the organizer and co-chair of the 2013 Polar Plunge to benefit Special Olympics of Allen County and Indiana, finds herself doing that a lot this time of year. It is just a few months before the main event when hundreds of brave souls climb a platform 8 feet in the air to dive into a bin full of frigid water to raise money for the organization. It’s during these lunch hours that Fiechter hopes to recruit teens from area
Photo by Jane Snow
John Clendenen, left, of Leo gets an assist from St. Joe Christmas Tree Farm employee Dane Okleshen of Fort Wayne. Employees of the north-east side farm use machines to shake loose needles from the trees before wrapping the trees in twine. really pretty green.” “It’s not economy,” she continued, “because Fraser fir are really expensive trees because they take so long to grow in Indiana.” Of the farm’s 38 small sections of trees, only five are favorable to the Fraser fir. “They’re very, very finicky,” she said. “They grow very slowly, about 4 inches of growth a year. If we can’t grow them here we have to ship them in. It’s either taking up fields for too long or we’re having to pay shipping to get them in.”
The farm also offers Scotch pine, white pine, Douglas fir and blue spruce. “We always try to educate our customers, who sometimes say they don’t see many trees,” Reifenberg said. “We’d love to control what God gives us but we can’t do that.” This year, for example, the drought was a factor. “We did lose some seedlings,” she said, “but it will affect our sales seven years from today, seven to 10 years, not this year. But See TREE, Page A5