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From a Gutter to Millennium plaza
11/29/2011 |
YAKIMA, Washington Over 25 years ago, Lewie Graham watched his brother pluck a 6-inch-tall evergreen from the rain gutter of his Seattle home. "He said 'You want it?' and I said, 'Yeah,' " Graham said. Graham planted the tree in the front yard of his home near the corner of Nob Hill Boulevard and Rock Avenue in Yakima. Monday, the 71-year-old watched a crew of about five work to place his tree, now roughly 50 feet tall, at the Millennium Plaza, where it will stand for Christmas. A few men steadied the massive tree while another used a chain saw to narrow its base so it would fit into a concrete hole. "They cut some off of it," Graham said while sitting at the plaza next to his 85-year-old wife, Ethel Graham. "We enjoyed it for all those years and we're glad others can enjoy it, too," she added. Each year, organizers of the annual Christmas parade in downtown install and decorate a donated tree at the plaza. This year proved worrisome for organizers because no one had offered a tree until after news reports about two weeks ago revealed that the group needed one. But once the news hit the streets, more than 40 calls from folks wanting to donate a tree poured in within a three-hour period, organizer Joe Mann said. In all, about 65 people, some as far as Ellensburg and Kittitas, were willing to donate a tree to be dressed in Christmas lights and ornaments and placed at the plaza, he said. But in the end, Graham's best fit the bill, Mann said. "This was the nicest tree that we saw that was accessible," he said. "It's larger than most the trees we've had in recent years." Mann said Haney Truck Line of Yakima donated the use of a flatbed truck to haul the tree, and Russell Crane, also of Yakima, donated the use of a large crane to lift it from the truck and place it into a concrete slot at the plaza. Volunteers will begin decorating the tree today, and it will be lit after the 5:30 p.m. parade Sunday, he said. "I thought it was a great tree and that it had a great story," Mann said. And it's a story that the Grahams intend to keep. As the couple sat while the crew worked, Lewie Graham's brother-in-law, 69-year-old Ron Walker, recorded the event. "They've been wanting it down because of the wind blowing and everything, so this is good for them and the city," Walker said. "And it's a beautiful day for it," he said, gazing up at a sunny sky. That maybe the only good thing that comes from a dirty gutter! |
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