About 250 Christmas trees are ready to find a home this holiday season during the annual Y-Men's Service Club Christmas tree sale.

Club members and players from the Marion Harding High School football team bundled up and braved below-freezing temperatures last Saturday to unload a tractor trailer full of balsam trees from Nova Scotia, Canada, at their lot located at the corner of Church Street and Reed Avenue in Marion, according to club member Marshall Cunningham.

The sale opens on Black Friday and will run until all trees are sold. Cunningham said the lot will be open from noon to 7 p.m. on Black Friday. The lot will be open from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

"The Christmas tree sale goes back to the early 1950s, maybe 1954 when we started," Cunningham said. "Our service club started in 1943. We're a loose confederation of men that want to get together, socialize, and provide service projects for our community. Over the years that service has taken for the form of shelter houses at our city parks, but we've really focused on building wheelchair ramps for our folks in need."

Cunningham said small trees (3 to 4 feet tall) are available for $25 each. Medium density balsam trees can be purchased for $45. Heavy density trees cost $50 each. Tal trees cost $70 each. All proceeds from the sale and from the club's annual golf outing are used to fund the club's various projects, including the construction of wheelchair ramps.

"The biggest project that we do is the wheelchair ramps," said Wade Farmer, president of the Y-Men's Service Club, who has been a member of the organization for 15 years. "The funds from (the Christmas tree sale) and our golf outing supplies all that along with donations from Modern Woodmen and others. We've found out that a lot of people we build ramps for haven't been out of their homes for three or six months, and they just love us when we come in and put one up for them. We've been putting ramps up in three or four hours. These guys have got it down pat. It's a good thing."

For information about the Y-men's Service Club's Christmas tree sale, go to the organization's Facebook page Y-Men's Service Club Marion, Ohio.

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