By Sarah Richardson
Now in its 14th year, the Greenbrier County Memorial Angel Tree has returned to the Greenbrier Valley Airport Lobby for the holiday season. The tree, positioned across from the entrance to Mi Tequila Mexican Restaurant, is adorned with ornaments paying homage to lost loved ones.
Previously located at the Greenbrier Valley Mall, the tree was moved to the airport four years ago. The tree offers free ornaments to write on to memorialize a passed friend or family member, collecting their memories. Then, the day after Christmas, a candlelight vigil is held, giving those left behind a place to share their memories and stories.
Coordinator Roger Honaker says that he visits the site seven days a week to make sure the tree’s lights are all working, and to restock the blank ornaments for the public. “There will be ornaments there all of the time for anyone to use if they don’t have their own,” Honaker said. “If someone comes to the airport, sees the tree, and they don’t have an ornament, they can use one.”
“This is our fourth year of being located at the Airport,” he said. “They keep the tree on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For the candlelight service, they dim the lights and let us use their microphone, and they’ve never asked us for anything.”
He explained how for their first year they had only a 4-foot tree set up at Greenbrier Valley Mall with 22 ornaments on it. The idea came about after the tragic passing of several area children, including an 18-year-old who passed in a car accident, and it was suggested that perhaps community members hang ornaments in their memory on their trees at home. However, the idea grew into setting up a tree in a public setting just as a memorial tree.
Honaker approached the owner of the mall, who let them use their space for the tree. Over the years, the tree size grew from the original 4-foot tree, to a 9-foot tree in 2020, and now they offer an 11-foot tree that becomes saturated in ornaments by the time of the candlelight ceremony.
“Last year we had 362 ornaments,” he said, “it really fills up fast.” He is diligent in making sure that the 700 lights on the tree stay in working condition, and uses a ladder to move some ornaments to the hard-to-reach top of the tree to help make room for everybody.
As he checks in on the tree each day, Honaker shares emotional stories that are relayed to him by visitors he catches leaving memorial ornaments. “On Saturday I was visiting the tree, and a man and a woman were placing an ornament for her daughter that had passed, and she said she was putting her ornament on the back of the tree so she could watch the planes come and go. Last week, a man and his two children came out of the restaurant, and I said they were welcome to put an ornament on the tree, and they put one up for the children’s mom. The little girl said to me, ‘Don’t be sad, mister, my mom’s with Jesus,’ and that really got me.”
Honaker said that when the Angel Tree started 14 years ago, he never imagined it would have continued they way it has. Some people call him to place an ornament on the tree on their behalf, other people mail him ornaments to be included on the tre, others get picked up after the candlelight service, and the remainder he faithfully keeps and stores himself. “I’d have never dreamt of it being like this,” he said, and joked that after all this time his storage is getting pretty full.
He thanks Pastor Kenneth Baker for his 12 years of service with the Angel Tree ceremony. “He leads us in prayer, and then we light a five-candle tribute,” said Honaker. “I couldn’t do it without him.” Pastor Baker is the pastor at the WSS Grace Memorial Baptist Church on Main Street in White Sulphur Springs.
“It’s not a church service, it’s different from anything that you’ve seen,” he says. He supplies the candles, the programs, and more ornaments for the memorial. “Somehow, the Lord has always provided. I’ve always had the funds to do this.”
This year, the Candlelight Ceremony will be held on Dec. 26 at 6 p.m. Honaker specified that it was free of charge and open to all, even if they’re just visiting the area. Members of the public are encouraged to come and honor the memory of a loved one by placing their name on the tree and attending the memorial service. Those looking to keep up with the tree’s progress can find it on Facebook as “Greenbrier Valley Angel Tree.”