Larimer County Sheriff's Office gets in the Christmas spirit with giant tree in lobby
Thanks to the determined staff at Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, a two-story Christmas tree now stands tall in the employee lobby.
Sheriff John Feyen posted about the tree being set up on Facebook earlier this week — and the persistence from staff that finally got him to cave into putting the tree up.
Feyen said when his staff brought him the idea of putting a tree in the new, large and empty employee entrance built as part of the recently completed jail expansion project, he “initially resisted the idea, not because I'm a Scrooge, but because I think trees belong in the forest,” but his resistance seemed to motivate the other 549 employees at the sheriff’s office — there are 550 sheriff's office employees, including Feyen — to get him to change his mind.
In the following days, Feyen said he would come in to find smaller and smaller trees set up in the lobby, finally ending up with a tree similar to the signature Charlie Brown tree.
When Feyen finally caved to allowing a massive tree in the lobby, he had two requirements:
They had to select a tree that was already going to get cut down for wildfire mitigation.
While bringing it in and setting it up, they couldn’t break anything they couldn’t fix for free.
Feyen said he hoped it “would bring joy to the agency.”
“And JOY it brought!” Feyen wrote in his Facebook post.
Teamwork by a group of sheriff's office wildland firefighters — many donning Santa hats — got the giant tree through the doors, down the hallway and bent through some awkward angles before standing it up by the staircase in the lobby.
As they used poles, a ladder and lift to decorate the tree — including topping the tree with a custom LCSO star — Feyen said several staff members lined the halls to watch.
“The smiles were AMAZING!” Feyen said.
Since posting about this Wednesday morning, news outlets from around the world have picked up the story, Feyen said, and he’s happy to have helped spread some joy this holiday season.
"Keep spreading the joy!!"
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Larimer County sheriff 'caves' to Christmas tree put up in lobby
