More than $10,000 has been raised in support of the local food bank through the sponsorship of buoys for the St. Andrews, New Brunswick lobster pot Christmas tree since the tradition was started by local business owners four years ago.
“Me and a lady by the name of Alisan Bailey, her husband is a fisherman, we always joked about doing a small lobster pot tree on my deck at the pub for Christmas,” said Kevin Simmonds, who owns the Red Herring Pub in the coastal New Brunswick town.
“The more we talked about it and thought about it, it went from the deck to a small tree in the town square. It kept expanding from let’s do this to maybe sell buoys for the tree and have local people paint them” with proceeds going to the local food bank.”
The first year, $1,200 was raised for the food bank and “we thought that was a great success,” said Simmonds. The second year the donations increased to $2,000, then $3,200 and last year more than $6,000 was collected.
“We’re getting people to recycle their buoys, to come and pick them up and fix them up so we’re not buying new buoys every year. People take one back, recycle it, it’s helping the environment and we make money for the food bank,” said Simmonds.
“The buoys are sold for $30. We had people calling from Ontario last year to buy buoys. Two people out of Florida wanted to sponsor buoys and a guy out of Boston who bought six buoys had local people paint them.”
Some of the buoys are in memory or honour of local people with a connection to the sea, while others are decorated by children in daycare and youth groups.
Simmonds said 120 lobster traps are used to construct the tree, all donated by Bailey’s husband. “Every year we go back and get a few more,” he said.
When it comes time to build the tree, “we ask for volunteers. Every year our group has gotten bigger. We have almost 20–25 people to help us put it up and come back and help us take it down and load on truck,” said Simmonds. The traps are stored in a laydown lot outside of town owned by a local construction company until the next holiday season.
Simmonds said the ultimate goal is to find sponsorship for buoys from other communities in Charlotte County such as St. George and St. Stephen, with the proceeds from those buoy sales going to food banks in those communities.
“St. Andrews is a community on its own, but Charlotte County is a community. The ultimate goal is to reach out even further. Charlotte County is our community, southern New Brunswick is our community,” said Simmonds.
Topped with a lighthouse, the St. Andrews lobster pot Christmas tree will be lit for the season in late November and will stay up until the new year. The tree lighting always coincides with the town’s Christmas tree lighting and is a festive affair with carollers, a local DJ playing Christmas music and free hot chocolate and cookies for the kids.
“Everybody is expecting it and we like doing it,” said Simmonds.
