Operation Christmas decor
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Story By Harrison Tarr Photos By Samantha Sweatman and Contributed
ith the holiday season around the corner, the people of Opelika begin preparations for hosting families, sharing laughter and spreading the joy which comes along with the time of the year. For Bill Schwenk & Robbie Hughes, co-owners of Bill and Robbie’s Excellent BBQ Adventure, the most important part of the holidays is giving. In the spirit of giving, the pair has launched “Operation Christmas Decor,” an initiative designed to provide Christmas trees to disabled veterans in the Opelika community. (Schwenk and Hughes have a second effort at Christmas — The Excellent Christmas Adventure. Turn to page 58 for more information.) The idea to provide Christmas trees to those in need came to Schwenk while giving estimates for holiday decor in December
2020. “Last year we decided when we were doing Christmas trees, I said ‘hey man, let’s get some Christmas trees for disabled vets,’” Schwenk said. “I was transitioning out and was struggling through the transition of being a service member for 23 years and then my whole life changed.” Schwenk’s personal experience with the transition back to civilian life inspired him to offer a helping hand to the fellow veterans in his community. “That’s a major struggle for a lot of veterans,” Schwenk said. “So I wanted to just reach out to veterans and what I didn’t want to see happen was some Vietnam war vet that couldn’t put up a tree — but loves the holidays — not have a tree in his house.” According to the 23-year veteran, finding members of the
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