ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ) – A 50-foot spruce tree crossed the Fox River on Monday to adorn the outside of Lambeau Field this holiday season.
The locally grown tree for the Green Bay Packers 2021 Festival of Lights celebration comes from the backyard of Wayne Berkovitz.
“It’s been a tradition over the past few years with the Green Bay community submitting pictures and a 100-word essay on why their tree should be represented at Lambeau Field. Wayne and his family were the lucky recipients and winners this year,” said Gary Daggett, who identified himself as the ‘Packers Tree Guy.’
“I’ve been debating whether to move this tree out of here, so the timing on this is real nice!” Berkovitz said. “My guess is that the tree itself is somewhere in the 45 year range, possibly 50 years?”
Crews from Miron Construction used a large crane to lift the tree onto a flatbed truck, supplied by Enneper Trucking of Sobieski.
“Shouldn’t take more than 30-60 minutes to get the tree down and loaded onto the truck. Then we’ll receive an escort from the property here to Lambeau Field,” Daggett said.
The tree is set onto a flatbed truck as crews prepare to strap it down for transport. (PHOTO: WTAQ News)
And it didn’t take much longer than an hour for the crews to ratchet the tree to the truck bed, despite chilly and windy conditions biting at everyone’s fingers.
Berkovitz admitted he wasn’t feeling too many emotions about the tree leaving his yard, but he was thinking about the snow and wind protection it had provided for all of those years.
“I already feel a little weird, the way the whole area opened up. But I’m going to figure something out, I’ll get more privacy back here. But for right now, it’s okay,” Berkovitz said.
On Saturday, the tree will be lit in Harlan Plaza during the annual Festival of Lights, which is a family-friendly, free event that features cookie decorating, holiday movies, holiday card making and photo opportunities with Santa Claus.
“Everyone can come and enjoy it the way that I’ve enjoyed it for twenty-some years,” Berkovitz said. “We’re going to go out there Saturday night . What we’ll end up doing is taking some Christmas photos for next year.”
As a thank you for donating his tree, Berkovitz will receive four tickets to the Packers-Vikings game on January 2nd. He was excited, but also thinking about how much colder it might be a month from now.
“It’ll be good. I don’t know how long I’ll last out in the cold, but we’ll go and we’ll be there,” Berkovitz laughed.
While the Festival of Lights is free to attend, those attending the event are encouraged to donate new, unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots, to help families in need this holiday season.
