How a Fulton, Illinois Christmas tree farm is giving back to service members this holiday season

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Sunday was the second and final day of Davenport’s Home for the Holidays Market at the Freight House Farmers Market. Vendors from across the region gathered to sell goods for the holiday season.

One of those vendors was Timber Lane Christmas Tree Farm, hailing all the way from Fulton, Illinois. 

“For those that can’t travel, we can come to them,” co-owner Bill Holesinger said. 

Despite being around 45 minutes away from the Quad Cities metro, the farm had setups at two different locations on Sunday: Freight House in Davenport and Arts Alley in Rock Island. 

“They could walk back to their apartment with it, so that’s the nice part about this,” Holesinger said. 

While Timber Lane had a relatively successful season this year, other places weren’t so lucky. After Hurricane Helene hit the southeast, many wholesale Christmas tree farms were devastated. Holesinger believes the damage has a direct impact here in the Midwest. 

“I think it affected the ‘Trees for Troops’ because their numbers were down,” he said. 

“Trees for Troops” helps donate live Christmas trees to military families. The Rock Island Arsenal called Holesinger to see if his farm could help supply some trees this year. Timber Lane has supported in the past through monetary donations, but never gifted live trees. 

“The Arsenal is a smaller base,” he said. “So, they were the first ones to be cut because of the shortage of ‘Trees for Troops.'”

The tree farm supplied 50 trees to the Arsenal and they are still taking donations from the community to supply more. 

“We wouldn’t have this country and the ability to be what we are if we didn’t have our military,” Holesinger said.

Community members can also buy a tree to donate at a reduced price. 

“Too often we forget about why we have Christmas,” he said. “The very first gift was our Christ.”

“I just feel we need to support our troops way more than we do,” Joel Stuart, one of Holesinger’s family members working at the Freight House event, said. 

If you would like to help Timber Lane Christmas Tree Farm with its mission, you can give them a call at 563-559-0310 or visit 7250 Garden Plain Rd. in Fulton. They also post updates on their Facebook page.