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Since then, according to the Wheeler Family, over $17,000 was raised by their sale of trees and also at a recent fundraiser.
The Progeria Research Foundation is in the midst of a campaign to raise 2 million dollars for a drug trial on a potential drug treatment that doctors hope will help Kaylee and other progeria kids. Progeria is extremely rare, affecting only about a dozen children in the entire country. The children age 8 to 10 times faster than normal, and live on average until they’re 13-years-old, but this new drug may help slow the aging process.
You can still make a donation to the Progeria Research Foundation in Kaylee’s name at any Fifth Third Bank branch. See www.whitehousetreefarm.com for details.
Nine years of nursing trees yields family’s college funds
By WENDY TORELLO
Times Herald (Port Huron)
YALE, Mich. (AP): For as long as Bethany Shephard can remember, the Shephard family always traveled to a tree farm the day after Thanksgiving to pick out their Christmas tree. This year, the family started selling them from their own back yard.
“We started with 2,000 trees, and after last weekend I think we need to plant a lot more,” Ed Shephard said about Country Christmas Tree Farm and Gifts.
Nine years ago, Ed and Theresa, with the help of a family friend, planted a few Christmas trees on the bare 20 acres surrounding their home east of Yale. They hoped their efforts would help finance college educations for daughters Bethany, 19, and Andrea, 16.
``Since the beginning, we were out there right behind them stomping the trees in the ground,'' Bethany Shephard said. “A couple years ago we got to run the planter—that was a big step up,'' she said.
The trees don't grow on their own. Each year Andrea Shephard has spent her summers mowing between the trees to keep the weeds down. The trees also have to be shaped a couple times each year to keep them looking good.
“It's really enjoyable to go out there and shape the trees,'' Ed Shephard said. ``It's quiet.''
These days the girls can be found working weekends running the Country Christmas store while Ed Shephard and his brother, Dale, shake and bag trees for customers while Theresa Shephard works on handmade wreaths.
``We didn't know if it was going to work or not,'' Ed Shephard said. ``Friday morning, no one came until about 11, and I was out there in the field going, `You idiot, what did you plant all these trees for?'''
Shortly before noon, the Shephards sold their first tree.
One-by-one, families visited Country Christmas Tree Farm and Gifts, each carefully picking their tree and perhaps, like the Shephards, starting traditions of their own.
“It was a lot of work but it was fun,” Ed Shephard said. “I’m having a blast.``'
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