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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 6 december 2017

After the lights dim, Rockefeller Christmas trees still give

By MICHAEL HILL being built with wood from big Norway spruces that
Associated Press last year’s 94-foot (28-me- tower over skaters each
NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — ter) Norway spruce. December at Rockefeller
Old Rockefeller Center Homeowner Keith Smith Center are show trees, not
Christmas trees never re- can’t see the unique wood work trees, with wood often
ally die, they just get built from the 2015 tree in his too knotty to support a lot
into the wall frames and home, but he feels it. He of weight. So Habitat volun-
floor supports of affordable appreciates his family’s teers use the special spruce
homes. connection to the annual strategically, as they did
For the past decade, the tree lighting extravaganza last week in Newburgh with
ornament-laden trees that in Manhattan. 14-inch (35-centimeter)
have been lit up with glitz, “Pretty much everyone sections bracing floor joists
songs and dancing Rock- on TV is watching it. That in a gutted row house. Lumber milled from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is
ettes have gone on to be makes it a part of history. Several doors down, it was stacked for construction of a Habitat for Humanity house in
milled into lumber used in That makes me proud to used to help frame in an Newburgh, N.Y.
dozens of Habitat for Hu- have a part of history in my interior wall. That house (Habitat for Humanity/Steffan Hacker via AP)
manity homes from Phila- house,” Smith says. is ready for a move-in by “Even though I don’t cel- to-be-determined city for
delphia to Pascagoula, In addition to Newburgh, Perez, her husband and ebrate Christmas, it means Habitat for Humanity.
Mississippi. Each tree yields other locations that have their four children. Perez is a lot for me because it’s still “After it’s all said and done
a truckload of 100 or more received Rockefeller wood a Jehovah’s Witness and nature,” she said. with, it’s going to some-
boards, all stamped with include Morris, New Jersey, does not celebrate Christ- Perez hopes to move in body else’s house,” Smith
an image of the tree and and Bridgeport, Connecti- mas, but she still showed within a few months. By says. “It makes me wonder
the year it was on display. cut. Rehabilitating a home the lone piece of still-visible then, this year’s Rockefell- how they’ll feel about that.
Wood from three of the in this historic city can cost stamped wood above a er tree will be milled into Will they feel how I feel?”q
Rockefeller trees has gone $150,000, though the sub- light switch to her toddler. planks headed to a yet-

This photo shows a plank of wood in Lisa Wilson’s new home
built by Habitat for Humanity in Philadelphia. Some of the lumber
from the 2014 Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center in New
York was used in the construction of the home.
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
50 miles (80 kilometers) up sidized costs to buyers are
the Hudson River to the based on 30 percent of
hardscrabble city of New- their income. Habitat for
burgh, New York, which has Humanity makes up the dif-
helped create an unlikely ference through fundrais-
Rockefeller Row of four ing.
homes on the same block. Buyers also must contrib-
“They didn’t just cut it ute hundreds of hours of
and throw it away. They “sweat equity” by working
used it in something good. alongside Habitat for Hu-
And what better than my manity volunteers.
home?” says Viridiana The Rockefeller wood is
Perez, who was visiting her more symbolic than struc-
family’s soon-to-be home tural. That’s because the