In 50-degree Florida weather, members of the Spirit of Jupiter marching band unload hundreds of Christmas trees from the back of a large truck, driven all the way from Nova Scotia, Canada, on Dec. 3 in the Daniels Way parking lot behind the school. The tree sales raise thousands of dollars for the band each year and is the largest fundraiser for the program. 

The marching band has held the Christmas tree fundraiser since 2000. They not only sell trees but also wreaths to Jupiter High students, staff and members of the community. Around 40% of the proceeds go to the band to help aid their competitions, instruments and activities. 

“This is my eighth year doing Christmas trees,” Sabine Watt, an active band parent, said. 

Usually, it takes hours to unload the Christmas trees, but the band gained twice the amount of orders they had last year.

“It’s gonna take us a while because we are at over a thousand trees, this year we really knocked it out of the park,” Watt said. 

The trees are driven over 2,000 miles from a tree farm in Nova Scotia, Canada to Jupiter, Fla. 

“Every year we get so many compliments on how beautiful these trees are and the same people buy from us every year because they love our trees and they love to help the band program,” Watt said. 

The band starts taking orders from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1, but people buy the extra trees left over from the order.

Ericka Muncy has been working at Jupiter High for 12 years and has purchased a tree every year since. 

“I love to support the band and they have really good trees. I have purchased trees elsewhere… but the band’s trees are by far the best,” Muncy said. 

Robert McNally, junior, joined the marching band his freshman year and has helped with the Christmas trees since then. 

“We go out [to the lot] when school starts and we just start unloading them,” McNally said. “This year it took over three hours and we usually stay after school and come the next morning for people to pick [the trees] up.”

Though the band students are unloading hundreds of Christmas trees, they find a way to make the long process enjoyable. 

“Sometimes there is snow in the truck so that’s really fun to see and sometimes we compete and see who can unload the most trees,” Mcnally said.