A slight increase in the prices of Christmas trees seems to be far from the minds of the Optimist Clubs of Winter Park and Cape Fear in their holiday project this year, as they strive only to raise money for children in need.

“This is our biggest fundraiser for 2008 for childhood cancer and boys and girls homes,” said Chairman Carl Miller of the Christmas tree project for the Optimist Club of Winter Park.

While trees for the Optimist Club of Winter Park project are shipped from Fleetwood, N.C., the Optimist Club of Cape Fear gets trees from Sparta and West Jefferson, N.C. 

“It cost us the same price this year to ship the trees,” Miller said.  “They were watered from the year before, so you don’t see any brown spots on them, but I predict that there might be an increase [in price] next year.”

“Our biggest sellers are the seven, which range from $47-54,” said President Auston Pusey of the Cape Fear Optimists.  “The prices have gone up just a little from last year, by about $3 to $4 a tree.”

Usually selling out by Dec. 11, the Optimist Club of Cape Fear has 1,100 trees to offer and all proceeds will go to organizations for children.

“We also sell tree stands, wreaths and candles,” Pusey said.

These two non-profit associations, out of six in the Wilmington area, also raise money through other fundraisers outside of Christmas tree sales for various organizations.

“We have youth baseball, including T-ball and little league baseball, and softball for girls at Hoggard High School and Hugh Macrae Park,” said President Tom Lamant of the Optimist Club of Winter Park.  “We sponsor all of these programs and serve 900 kids from ages 16-18.”

The Optimist Clubs sell programs at men’s basketball games at UNCW, offer a bike safety program and have car raffles to raise money for childhood cancer organizations and boys and girls group homes in Columbus County. 

“We sponsor Little Seahawks at UNCW, which is a basketball program in which the children perform at halftime during women’s basketball games practicing dribbling and passing skills,” Lamant said.

“We’re separate in what we do,” Pusey said.  “But our goal is the same.”