Selling holiday décor to raise a little green

Profits from Christmas trees and more benefit drug, alcohol rehab facility Delancey Street

For 35 years, the Delancey Street Foundation has brought holiday spirit to Santa Fe, offering wreaths, garland and Christmas trees — and an opportunity to make a difference. Profits from the organization’s annual Christmas tree sale go toward food, clothing, education and medical care for residents of Delancey Street, an Ohkay Owingeh-based rehabilitation program that helps people overcome drug and alcohol addiction and develop work skills.

The organization has served more than 10,000 people in New Mexico since 1976, when it opened its doors on a 17-acre site north of Española, said Herman Leporowsky, a facilitator for Delancey Street.

Upon hearing the mission of Delancey Street, one Christmas tree customer, Trudy Spray, couldn’t help but smile.

“We need more of that here,” Spray said to Jeanine Zertuche, a resident of the program who helped her find a tree.

For the first time in 22 years, Leporowsky said, Delancey Street is selling its trees and other holiday wares in a new location. The sale, previously held in the DeVargas Center parking lot, has been moved to a lot at the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and Paseo de Peralta.

The foundation is selling trees at five other locations, including three in Albuquerque, a second site in Santa Fe, and one in Los Alamos.

The trees range from small, thin firs priced at $24 to full-bodied spruces marked at $400.

TOP: Trudy Spray smiles while purchasing a Christmas tree from Delancey Street’s sale at the corner of Paseo de Peralta and Old Santa Fe Trail. ‘We need more of that here,’ she said when she learned of Delancey Street’s mission.

PHOTOS BY OLIVIA HARLOW/THE NEW MEXICAN ABOVE: Jeanine Zertuche, a resident at Delancey Street, cuts the end of a Christmas tree for a customer on Tuesday. The drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility is raising funds by selling holiday décor.