Contributed
This year marked the 25th year that volunteers, mostly from the Lake Auman Sports Club (LASC), have delivered and placed Christmas trees under lakefront homeowner docks around Lake Auman.
More than 70 trees were delivered and prepared on March 17, and they were placed under 26 docks two days later. The 26 project volunteers appreciated the warmer March temperatures — both air and water — rather than the usual frigid February conditions in past years.
The following LASC members delivered the trees and prepped them at the docks: Daryl Adams, Randy Blake, Jeff Brisson, Jim Deak, Joe Easley, Tom Gaffney, Bill Graham, Tom Kallio, Bruce Keyser, Stan Makson, John Plourde, Don Smith and Jeff Timmons.
Twelve community residents needed assistance disposing of their Christmas trees and were able to have their trees picked up and taken to the designated tree drop area by LASC volunteers Tom Gaffney and Don Smith.
A significant quantity of bricks, used to weigh the trees down under the docks, is needed every year. Meeting our needs this year were brick donations from BVH Construction, J and K Builders and Keith and Sandy Golding.
Moving the bricks from construction sites and storing them took the help of nine volunteers: Randy Blake, Paul Brezinski, Mark Haut, Tom Kallio, Bob Long, Don Smith and Don Snell plus Bill Legars with his John Deere tractor and Bill Elchik with his heavy duty dump trailer.
For the first time, there were five men willing to don their wetsuits and enter the 60-degree water to place and secure the trees under the docks. Those five were Ben Benjamin, Ethan Martin, Ryan Scott, Jeff Timmons and Dan Pieroni. Peroni started this program 25 years ago and has participated every year since, watching it grow from his one-man operation to what it is today.
Assisting “the divers” were Tracy Cicatelli, Debbie Chaney, Larry Chaney, Wendel Kronis, Mike Meyer, Don Smith, Don Snell and Jeff Yurk.
With five teams working, this was the most efficient tree installation project ever.
This annual fish habitat project provides the lake’s small fish with protective cover to escape from larger predator fish and contributes to increasing the lake’s fish population, both in size and number. Thanks to all the volunteers for a job well done and to the lakefront homeowners who participated this year and in the past to make this program a success. The project was organized and managed again this year by Don Smith.
