When the leaders of New Trier High School’s Tri-ship club placed an order in October for their annual Christmas tree fundraiser, they decided to play it safe.
Anticipating that the COVID-19 pandemic would likely dampen sales this holiday season, they cut back a bit this year.
“We were not exactly sure what COVID would look like in December, so while we normally order around 500 trees, we reduced that by about 20%, because we didn’t want to get stuck with all of these Christmas trees we couldn’t sell,” said senior Matt Booden, who serves as the club’s president at the Winnetka high school.
But despite their gloomy predictions of lackluster sales due to the virus, Booden and his fellow Tri-ship members were pleasantly surprised when flocks of loyal customers arrived at the high school’s parking lot the weekend after Thanksgiving. The club sold out of its stock of Frazier firs in just three days.
“Our Christmas tree sale typically goes on for three weeks, until the middle of December, so the fact that we were sold out in three days was absolutely amazing, and we never expected that,” Booden said.
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The 100 members of the nearly century-old, all-male club — the high school also has an all-female Girls Club — also enjoyed the camaraderie that accompanied the event, which raises money for college scholarships awarded to New Trier graduating seniors.
“When we met out at the tree lot, it was really the first time many of us had seen each other in person this year, which is kind of sad,” said Booden, adding that the club has been meeting virtually since the arrival of the pandemic last spring.
“It was a little hard to recognize people, because we were all masked and social distancing, but it was still great to be able to talk in person,” Booden added.
New Trier sophomore Tommy Mosher, 15, who joined Tri-ship during his freshman year, said he enjoyed unloading the delivery of Christmas trees, and meeting longtime customers from the community.
“We weren’t expecting as many customers, so I’m just really happy that a lot of people came out … one guy told me his family has bought their Christmas tree at New Trier his whole life,” Mosher said.
“It was really great to see how the club really believes in this, and how the seniors took charge, and got it to happen,” Mosher added.
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