A Christmas tree is a luxury if you're struggling financially. On Christmas Eve, I visited a Christmas tree lot that tries to lend a hand.
It was run by the Delancey Street Foundation, an organization which helps substance abusers turn their lives around. Many of them have spent a lot of time in jails and prison. They've hit rock bottom and scraped their way up from it. They say they know what it is to need help and so appreciate the chance to help others.
The lot opened at 9 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Half an hour before, a line already had formed. Cayetano Hernandez, 50, was at the front with his wife and two children. He is a pool plasterer who has not had much work of late because of the rainy weather. Without toy giveways and the free tree, the family would have had no Christmas, Hernandez said.
Read more about the free Christmas trees and the Delancey Street Foundation in my latest City Beat.
Here's the visual reporter's notebook I sent out on Twitter:
Photo: Nora Carvey, 5, is surrounded by her father Buddy and her mother Alisa as they continue the family tradition of getting a free tree each year. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
L.A. Now is the Los Angeles Times’ breaking news section for Southern California. It is produced by more than 80 reporters and editors in The Times’ Metro section, reporting from the paper’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters as well as bureaus in Costa Mesa, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Riverside, Ventura and West Los Angeles.
