More than 1,200 Christmas trees and thousands of handmade cards will be shipped out of northern Michigan to Chicago this weekend, where they'll be distributed to low-income families.
Roughly 130 volunteers, mostly made up of high schoolers and children, were lined up in between a semi-truck and the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw in Cheboygan on Tuesday morning.
They formed a human conveyor belt to load Christmas trees onto the ship, as holiday music and the sweet smell of pine filled the air.
"This is absolutely magical," said USGC Ensign Zoe Cousineau, who as a cadet, sang in the Coast Guard academy's Glee Club when the trees arrived in Chicago.
"So I have gotten to see both sides of this event as a cadet just singing Christmas carols for the people of the Chicago, and as the project officer, leading this evolution," she said.
Now, managing the tree ship, Cousineau said it's a festive break from typical operations on the cutter like servicing buoys and icebreaking across the Great Lakes.
"This is a really special thing that we get to take our time and give back to the community," Cousineau said.
This is the event's 25th year, which honors the legacy of sailor Herman Schuenemann, who was known as "Captain Santa" and hauled Christmas trees to sell in Chicago.
He went down with the schooner, the Rouse Simmons, when it sank during a 1912 storm in Lake Michigan. The ship had been reportedly carrying thousands of Christmas trees onboard that would wash up on the coastline for years after the shipwreck.
Mackinaw commanding officer Jeannette Greene said the Christmas tree ship is a way spread some joy while remembering a piece of Great Lakes history.
“(Schuenemann) would sometimes donate trees to folks he thought were needy or maybe couldn't afford a tree, so he had this reputation of being a very kind and generous person,” Greene said.
The Mackinaw Cutter "send off" from Cheboygan, complete with cookies and cocoa, will take place this Saturday, Nov. 30. The ship is expected to arrive in Chicago next week.
