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Chapter One
 pg 1  The End?

It is the end, in a one way...and perhaps the beginning, in another way.

This story just presented itself to me, quite by chance... but struck a "chord" deep inside of me...so much so that I felt compelled to tell it. This is the story of The Christmas Ship.

Friday night:  We were in Chicago in early December, 2003 for an annual meeting. The local news was quietly buzzing in the background of the hotel room when something caught my attention...The local newscaster announced that the Christmas Tree Ship was docked at Navy Pier. It's mission...to deliver Christmas Trees, of all things... FREE...to those who otherwise would not have one.  Around 500  trees were on the ship, and the trees came from North Country Christmas Trees in Wausaukee, Wi (Yikes, I thought, that's only 15 miles west of us... how neat!)  The announcer went on to add that the trees would be given to pre-selected city residents on Saturday. I thought the announcer said that the ship was a U.S. Coast Guard ship, but wasn't sure.

I didn't hear the rest of the story but the story stuck in my mind. We discussed what a neat Christmas story this was, and thought it was neat that the trees came from Wausaukee, and also thought it was neat that it might me a Coast Guard ship that had delivered the trees to those needing one in Chicago.  Neat because our city has a ship builder who builds U.S. Coast Guard ships. And that was that.

 

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Story copyright © 2003 Lloyd Cook - Images copyright © 2003 A Crane Project