Three years ago, Michael Gessel Jr. and his mother, Kristen Gessel found that they had an abundance of scarves, hats and gloves lying around their house. The pair put strings between trees at the end of their driveway filled with the winter gear and advertised on Facebook about their new “giving tree” for people in need. Now they run the giving tree located on Main Street in Crawford, and it couldn’t be more successful.

Kristen and her now 9-year-old son Michael were inspired years before after seeing a giving tree in Goshen. While they didn’t think too much of it at the time, years later the mother-son duo wanted to bring the concept to Crawford. They first started it at their own house. “We did advertise it on Facebook. I said, ‘this is where I’m located.’ My son helped me and we basically started bagging everything [the hats, scarves and gloves], hung it out there and we put a sign [that said] giving tree [and] free,” said Kristen.

Although many residents and friends loved the idea and donated items to it, they mentioned to the Gessels it wasn’t that convenient because of the rural location. So, Michael had the idea to move it to town.

“It just so happened that Crawford had recently purchased the property at 6 Main Street which has a parking lot and that’s where the UFO Museum is. Now the town actually owns that, so they said ‘look, we have an old tree we can let you borrow and if you want to do this, let’s do it,’” said Kristen.

The following year, the Town of Crawford contacted Kristen to do another tree. She notes how heavily Michael is involved. “Michael is in charge not only of collecting donations, but he bags them up and labels them. He also clips them to the tree. Michael knows everybody in town,” Kristen mentioned.

The tree is now back up for the third year in a row, and has hats, scarves, gloves and now socks hanging on it in plastic bags for those in need. Kristen mentions the help they’ve received from the community. On top of donations, they also got a $200 donation from an anonymous donor.

“We got the money and we went to Affordable Finds, which is a consignment shop in our town. And they of course know Michael too, and the tree is not far from where they’re located. They gave us a great deal on a ton of the items that we need for the tree,” said Kristen.

The current tree is from Beck’s Hardware, which Kristen notes they sold to them for a discounted price. They paid for it using donations from locals.

“We actually got a new tree that is in much better condition and is now mounted to a platform so it won’t tip over in wind and rain,” said Kristen.

Michael’s care and contribution to the tree has gotten him some out-of-town recognition. This past summer Michael and a friend who started a tree in Washingtonville (inspired by the one Michael started) were invited to meet NYS Senator James Skoufis. Skoufis presented them with awards. Michael noted the reasoning behind the tree. “It means something that people can take if they don’t have it and [people put] stuff on if they have extra.”

Kristen and Michael want to see other kids participating in community activities. Already, multiple children from neighboring areas have shown interest in starting similar trees.

“Our goal is to try to get more kids to get involved and [to have] more of these [giving trees] pop up in more communities here, especially in Orange County. Imagine if every town had one,” said Kristen.