DHL Express, an express delivery and logistics company, has teamed up with the New York community to donate and deliver hundreds of holiday trees, decorations and messages of support to U.S. troops in the Middle East through DHL’s sixth annual “Trees for Troops” charitable program.
DHL is donating all transportation and logistical services of the trees and holiday items, which have been supplied through donations from New York businesses and community organizations, including Dee’s Nursery, Adelis International Security, Adopt-a-Soldier Platoon, Proctor-Hopson Post 1896 Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and other members of the New York metro community. 500 real trees with lights and tinsel, menorahs, holiday decorations and “Santa Sacks” filled with thousands of holiday cards written by local school children will be transported to U.S. troops overseas.
The trees were loaded onto a DHL 767 aircraft, transported to DHL’s European hub in Leipzig, and then onward to DHL’s Middle East hub in Bahrain. From Bahrain, the holiday shipment will be separated and distributed to military units throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.
DHL Express has operated in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003 in direct support of the Department of Defense. DHL has been operating in the Middle East for over 30 years.
DHL launched its annual Trees for Troops program in December 2004, after Jim Adelis, a New York businessman, overheard a woman at Dee’s Nursery inquiring about how to ship a Christmas tree to her son in Iraq. Adelis, whose son was stationed in Iraq at the time, reached out to DHL and the local community to deliver more than just a single tree. In November and December 2004, with the help the U.S. Army Reserve 77th Regional Readiness Command, Dee’s Nursery and the New York metro community, DHL delivered two shipments featuring a total of 135 trees and holiday decorations from JFK to U.S. troops stationed at Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq.
