This year the Anderson County 4H Horse Project's service project was decorating a Christmas tree for the Festival of Trees adopt-a-tree. This project was undertaken because most of the 4H members had been treated at Children's Hospital in Knoxville. No child is ever turned away from the hospital and, to do this, the hospital must have help from the community. The Festival of Trees is the major fund raiser for Children's Hospital.

To be part of the adopt-a-tree section means that all ornaments will be handmade. It was decided that we would make the tree have a horse/barn theme. Under this heading, each member painted a 6 inch horse to look like the horse they owned or rode during 4H. After painting the horses, the members constructed stable doors and a floor from craft sticks and boards. There were a total of 45 horses upon completion of this part of the project which became ornaments. The kids (ranging from 4th grade through 12th grade ) then made peppermint candy garland using salt dough, red paint and cellophane. Ornaments were red, white and blue barrels (made from Hunts paste cans) and painted, stars made from a patchwork cloth with an English boot, cap, a western boot or cap or a bag of feed hanging from the star, and western boots and cowboy hats made of metal and painted. The tree also held ornaments made of real horse shoes that were painted with silvery glitter paint. The sled pulled by reindeers at the top of the tree held no Santa Claus because he was down on the tree feeding carrots or apples to the horses. Words that wrapped around the tree that said "stopping by the barn on Christmas eve" told the story of the tree. The tree stood in a skirt that showed the arena at ETRC with a white standup fence surrounding the arena.

The 4Her's hoped that the tree would be bought by someone and they were not disappointed. A woman, who lives in Morristown and raises Paso Fino horses, bought the tree. She planned on using the tree this year and then next year she is going to donate it to a re-hap center in Morristown that uses horses to work with children.

Because this project was so successful, it may be repeated yearly with an additional project added each year.