A Christmas tree farmer in Nova Scotia is donating hundreds of trees to Puerto Rico to brighten the spirits of citizens still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Scott MacKinnon plans to send upwards of 500 trees as the holiday season gets underway. He says back in September, he never thought that would be possible.
“After the hurricane we hadn't heard from our customer,” said MacKinnon. “We kind of thought that was it. Like, there's no power. They won't be ordering trees. So we just kind of put it in the back of our mind.”
The trees are being transported from St. Andrews, N.S., to Halifax. They will arrive in Puerto Rico on Nov. 13, and will be handed out just in time for American Thanksgiving.
“They have a long history of trees in Puerto Rico. They love Christmas and the ceremony around it, and the tree being the central part of it,” MacKinnon says.
Nova Scotia has a storied cross-border relationship when it comes to celebrating the holidays. This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, and for decades the province has been sending a Christmas tree to Boston to thank them for their help.
“Being here it's kind of hard to understand it because it's not something we have to live through here,” says Christmas tree farmer Bernard Hanifen. “It opens your eyes to what the rest of the world has to deal with sometimes.”
MacKinnon hopes the trees will distributed free of charge, so Puerto Ricans will have something positive to look at as the recover from the destruction and devastation.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.
