Sandy Miller stands next to the 30-foot tall Collins Road Living Memorial Christmas Tree outside Toledo on Wednesday afternoon.
Ornaments dedicated to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting were placed on the Collins Road Living Memorial by bus drivers from the Toledo School District on Wednesday afternoon in Toledo.
Various ornaments honoring the memories of local residents as well as the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings hang from the Collins Road Living Memorial Christmas Tree outside Toledo on Wednesday afternoon.
From left: Ernie Higgins, a Toledo School District bus driver; Dawn Avery, the Toledo School District Transportation Supervisor; and, Sandy Miller, who started the effort to decorate the Collins Road Living Memorial Christmas Tree, look on after bus drivers from around the district put up ornaments in memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. last week.
Sandy Miller looks at one of the school bus-shaped ornaments that the Toledo school bus drivers placed on the Collins Road Living Memorial Christmas Tree on Wednesday afternoon in honor of the students and faculty that were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
By Kyle Spurr
kspurr@chronline.com
Since their first Christmas in Toledo 27 years ago, retired couple Gene and Sandy Miller always wanted to decorate a 3-foot noble fir tree on the corner of Highway 505 and Collins Road.
“Gene said he wanted to decorate the tree every year,” Sandy Miller said. “But time passed and we never got around to it.”
When Gene died last year, Sandy grabbed her niece Sue Hill and decorated the grown 30-foot tree with ornaments for the first time in more than three decades in honor of Gene.
This year, Sandy called all of her neighbors on Collins Road and asked if they wanted to be involved with dressing up the tree. Neighbors responded and have joined Sandy by adding their own ornaments and laminated photos of lost loved ones on the noble fir.
The tree has become a memorial for the community.
“It took 27 years before we started this project,” Sandy said. “It’s just heartwarming. I think this is going to be a standing tradition for the folks of Collins Road.”
Sandy also reached out to Toledo Telephone Company. The company’s CEO, Glenn Ramsey ,died this year. Sandy asked for help putting a star on top of the tree.
Toledo Telephone employee Art Briggs volunteered and earlier this month placed a star and other ornaments on the upper portion of the tree.
With the Collins Road Living Memorial Christmas Tree covered in ornaments to remember lost locals, Sandy thought the tree could use some lights. She bought 14 solar lights from the Dollar Tree in Chehalis and put them around the tree.
“The tree is just stunning when it is dark at night,” Sandy said.
After the shooting in Newtown, Conn., last week that left 20 children and six adults dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Sandy thought to call the Toledo School District bus drivers and asked if they wanted to add ornaments on the tree in memory of the shooting victims.
Transportation Superintendent Dawn Avery, along with other bus drivers, met with Sandy on Wednesday afternoon and placed laminated drawings of school buses on the tree with pictures of each victim on the drawings.
Now when people drive by the memorial tree, they will be reminded of the victims in Connecticut and their own relatives and friends who have passed away, Sandy said.
Sandy hopes the living memorial tree will bring the community together every Christmas.
“There is happiness yet at Christmas,” Sandy said despite the recent tragedy. “We have to keep spreading the word that there are nice people out there.”
For Sandy, the tree brings back memories of Gene.
“We’ve been together for 56 years,” Sandy said. “That is a long time to be with somebody you love with your whole heart.”
