For nearly 20 years, Ellms Family Farm has been a “Trees for Troops” pick up location.

“We probably have 20 other Christmas tree farms that drop trees off here,” said Ellms Family Farm owner Garth Ellms. “A lot of them come out and help us load.”

Each tree is stuffed with a holiday greeting for enlisted military personnel spending their holiday season away from home.

Major Dennis Tierney of the New York Army National Guard knows all too well the sacrifice this time of year.

“It is hard,” he said. “The hardest part is being away from your friends and family.”

Tierney remembers being on the receiving end of Trees for Troops during one of his overseas deployments.

“I think we kept it up until about February, but we did have a small tree in our dining facility,” he recalled.

Now he’s in year three of returning the favor as a volunteer, stuffing a truck full of Christmas trees.

“It’s a little gesture that goes a long way,” he said.

With 131 trees loaded at Ellms this year, Trees for Troops has sent more than 300,000 trees around the world since its inception in 2005.

“After a few years, we started having some folks come give us a hand, and they would take a picture out of their pocket and it would be a picture of a Christmas tree in Afghanistan,” Ellms said. “They would tell the story of what the smell and sight of a green, live Christmas tree meant to them, and what that meant was home.”