Oak Bay firefighters at a Christmas Tree recycling fundraiser (Submitted by Jason Hodge)

Oak Bay firefighters at a Christmas Tree recycling fundraiser (Submitted by Jason Hodge)

Oak Bay firefighters recycle Christmas trees this weekend

Jan. 5 and 6 stop by Fireman's Park to have your tree chipped, by donation.

  • Jan. 2, 2019 12:00 a.m.

Residents looking to recycle their Christmas trees this year can support a good cause at the same time.

This weekend, Jan. 5 and 6, the Oak Bay Fire Fighters Charitable Foundation is hosting their annual Christmas Tree Recycling at Fireman’s park (1703 Monterey Ave).

Firefighters are on site between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. both days. Jason Hodge, executive director of the foundation, says that money raised during this event gets spread around the departments’ charitable giving for the year, though traditionally most of it goes towards creating bursaries for local high school students. The event is by donation.

READ MORE: Greater Victoria firefighters reflect on season of giving

“It’s close to $70,000 in bursaries that we’ve donated in the history of us doing the bursaries for the high school, and all that money comes from the tree recycle,” Hodge said. Since he started taking part six years ago, they’ve raised between $4,000 and $5,000 annually recycling trees.

“It’s by donation, people just come to Fireman’s park, we help unload the trees, we stack them, then we have Bartlett Tree Service, they come donate their time and their man-power and chip them for us,” Hodge said. “Some people come and they drop off a small tree and give five bucks, and some people might drop off a branch and give $50.”


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