By JOSEPH KELLARD
In an effort spearheaded by James Adelis Sr., a Dee's regular from East Rockaway who owns Adelis Securities at Kennedy Airport, as well as the shipping service DHL, area businesses and organizations and private citizens donated some 1,000 trees to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Bahrain. Crate-loads of boxes packed with everything from baked goods to Christmas lights, ornaments and menorahs to bullet-proof vests were sent along with the trees. There were also thousands of words of praise and appreciation in the form of holiday cards and letters from students in East Rockaway and Oceanside.
Last December, in a similarly coordinated effort, Dee's donated 150 trees to Adelis's son, Specialist James Adelis Jr. of the 77th Regional Readiness Command, at his station, Camp Anaconda in Iraq. This year, with James Jr. back home in Dee's parking lot, the nursery donated 200 trees, DHL sent 500, and Adelis and others collected money for 300 more. A Port Authority police brigade on motorcycles, along with officers driving cars from the Nassau County, Lynbrook, Long Beach and New York City police departments, escorted a caravan of trucks carrying the trees and other items to the DHL international gateway at JFK to be shipped overseas.
Before the trucks were all loaded and departed along the streets and sidewalks covered with the season's first snow, Miss USO 2005 and four other singers, dressed in Santa suits and hats, performed on a small makeshift stage, signing a medley of songs including "Winter Wonderland," "Jingle Bell Rock" and "The Most Wonderful Time of Year" to a crowd of adults, local veteran groups and schoolchildren.
Before the performance, Adelis invited the fifth- and sixth-graders from the East Rockaway schools' Peer Group onto the stage to read some of the poems and letters they wrote to the troops, all of which were placed in separate "Santa Sacks."
"Because of your terrific might," read a passage from one poem written by Caitlin, a sixth-grader, "the darkness of this conflict shines bright." A later passage read, "Since this conflict could not be solved by words and actions, we fought this fight head on."
Other boys and girls read aloud from their hand-made cards, which contained such sentiments as, "Thanks so much for fighting for this country," "You make us proud to say we're Americans," "We really appreciate your fighting far from home for our country" and "Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah."
And, in anticipation of the event, students from East Rockaway High School raised money to buy phone cards for the soldiers overseas.
Kathy O'Reilly of DHL, who works directly with the troops overseas, thanked the crowd for "remembering them at Christmas ... I talk with some of them, and they can't believe they're getting live Christmas trees."
Retired Maj. Gen. Richard Colt, former commanding general of the 77th Regional Readiness Command, noted that "the 1,000 trees will bring 20,000 smiles."
Having been on the receiving end of the tree shipment last December in Iraq, James Adelis Jr., asked about the troops' reaction to the trees, said, "Live trees in Iraq? That's unheard of. What the trees do is bring back home."
As he watched all the goings-on in the lot - the USO Singers performing, DHL helicopters hovering overhead, forklifts loading trees and crates onto the trucks, James Adelis Sr. said, "It speaks for itself. It speaks to how much we care about the troops and how much they appreciate what we've done for them in the past."
Photos by Rebecca Lopatin/Herald
