Tree sales raising thousands

FESTIVE fundraising is in full swing at Rodelisa Plant Supplies in Junortoun with the return of their annual Christmas tree sales.

All proceeds from tree, stand and delivery purchases will this year be donated to Three Peaks For Pete, a 44 kilometre fundraising trek in memory of local man Peter Crone for MND Victoria.

The organisation supports people living with motor neurone disease and manager at Rodelisa Plant Supplies Mal Romeril said well over $10,000 had already been raised through the tree sales.

“We’re hoping to get to $15,000. Last year we had a mammoth year and we raised $26,000,” he said.

“We’re not sure where we’re going to finish.

“We’ve sold 650 trees already and last year we sold 900. This year, we’re hoping to get somewhere close to that.”

Mr Romeril said the first week of the season was always their biggest in sales and orders are already backed up to 21 December.

Some customers have even opted to pay their purchase forward and pass their order on to others, with one tree recently donated to Kalianna School.

“The beauty of it is that every cent goes to the charity, we don’t take anything out of it,” Mr Romeril said.

“We use our own vehicles and fuel to do the deliveries, the staff have given up their time to be involved in this whole process.

“The joy that it brings on the kids’ faces when they roll in here, pick their Christmas tree, go home and decorate it, and the beautiful Facebook posts that we’ve had of the families that have gone home that night and sent us photos straight away is priceless.”

Christmas tree orders are still being taken in store and over the phone, with deliveries made on weekends.