SOUTH ROYALTON — For nearly 50 years, the Royalton and Area Lions Club has put up a tree in town where people can honor loved ones who have died.
This year, for the first time, the group has two so-named “memory trees” so that more people can visit them. Anyone is welcome to add a name.
“We wanted to have another location to make it convenient for people,” said Pam Levasseur, who oversees the project for the Lions Club, a community service organization.
The artificial trees — which feature paper ornaments with loved ones names — are located at K & P Restaurant, 192 Chelsea St. and Aubuchon Hardware, 3626 Route 14. The same names will be on both trees and will stay up through the end of the year.
The tradition began in the 1970s, longtime Lions Club member Walter Hastings said. At the time, the club planted a tree on the South Royalton Green to use as a memory tree. When it grew too large to decorate, they planted another one a decade later. The club changed strategies around 20 years ago after the second tree grew too large and started a new tradition of putting the tree in area restaurants.
Hastings, of Royalton, always puts the names of multiple family members on the Memory Tree, including his parents. While the holidays can be a time of happiness, sometimes there’s an underlying grief that exists along joy.
“That’s when you miss them most I think,” Hastings said.
Often, people submit the same names year after year. “I can tell that it’s a tradition for many people,” Levasseur said.
Levasseur honors her parents, as well as her sister, Bonnie Livard, who died 1½ years ago.
A few years ago, club members started publicizing that people also could submit names of pets. While they’ve always allowed it, Levasseur said she wanted to make it clear to people that the club respected the grief the death of a beloved pet can bring.
“For a lot of people, they’re a family member,” she said.
People can either visit the trees to add names themselves, or send them to Levasseur, who visits the trees every day in December to add new names, which she prints out on paper ornaments. People can email her at pamlevasseur@gmail.com. The Lions Club asks for a $5 donation for each name, but Levasseur emphasized that it is not required.
“It’s a minor fundraiser for us, but I think it’s more for honoring people,” Hastings said, adding that the Memory Tree typically raises $100 to $250 for the club, which benefit various Lions Club programs, including school vision screenings and support for area food pantries.
Levasseur will read the list of names at 6 p.m. Saturday at the South Royalton Green on Chelsea Street right before the South Royalton Fire Department’s annual Christmas Parade. It will be the second year in a row she has done so.