Things were "rockin’ around the Christmas tree" farm in Cornwall on Tuesday morning as dozens of volunteers loaded trucks with trees for an early Christmas present.

“It’s great. We get to give these trees to military families,” said Farmside Acres owner Bob Nannini.

The Christmas tree drive is an annual event started 13 years ago with 100 trees. In 2021, Farmside Acres collected 1,400 donated trees that are piled into trucks to send to military families all over the country. Each tree has a tag attached to it with the contact information of the family that donated it.

“It kept growing and growing,” explained Nannini. “We’d get one FedEx truck. Now we’ve got four or five trucks that come.”

The trucks then take the trees to Kentucky’s Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, along with Georgia’s Fort Benning, Fort Gordon and Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

“Sometimes, families will send pictures of their tree on Christmas morning to those that donated it, thanking them for the tree,” said Nannini.

For Nannini, this is a family affair. His daughter, Leigh, organizes much of the event, and his grandchildren are there in attendance, with a tree under each arm and loading them into trucks. Everyone in attendance is giving something for the event, including those that are no strangers to public service.

“Most of these people, they’re just local people,” said Nannini. “Local police are here, firemen are here, even the FedEx guys are helping. They’ve jumped in," Nannini said.

FedEx also donates the time of their employees and trucks that will make the drive across the country, delivering joy to military members. The process takes just over an hour.

“A highlight of the season is getting to load these trees,” said Nannini.