The men working at the Adult & Teen Challenge Christmas tree lot have earned the privilege of helping customers.
“It's pretty important,” said Johnathan Hartman, who purchased a tree. “Everyone wants a good tree, and it's kind of a staple of Christmas. It's nice to have a good tree.”
And that's the reward for the man helping customers with Christmas trees.
“And it smells super nice,” said Abigail Church who was with her mom and brother buying a tree. “It smells like pine trees."
“We started doing a little tradition of getting a real tree every year,” said Cydnee Zeimet, Church’s mother. “So that's what we've been doing for the last five years now.”
Shawn Nelson says on this Giving Tuesday, it's as much about him giving as it is for the customers to give while buying trees from the Adult & Youth Challenge, a nonprofit that helps people such as Nelson overcome addiction.
“All I cared about is getting high and being a Montana knucklehead,” Nelson said about his life when he was in Cut Bank and Missoula.
Three years ago, he came to the Adult & Teen Challenge.
On it's website, the organization states: "Adult & Teen Challenge provides Christian faith-based, residential care to young people and adults who struggle with life-controlling problems."
“You have to separate yourself from the world and your old self and your lifestyle that you used to live,” Nelson said about dealing with addiction. “Our pledge is to lead the students like Christ, with compassion, respect, and guidance.”
And they try to pass that attitude on to customers.
“We weren't trusted with anything in our lives,” Nelson said about life before he overcame addition. “Now today we're able to handle money. We're able to have accountability. We're able to help people. It's a big responsibility.”
“He's a real nice guy, so that was cool,” Hartman about Nelson.
Nelson says with his wife and daughter, it will be a very exciting Christmas.
“I got married to a wonderful woman who loves Jesus, August 10,” Nelson said. “The lifestyle I was living, I never thought I would have been married. So God blessed that and he made it happen. So, yeah, I give all glory and praise to him."
Adult and Teen Challenge is selling trees at 2335 Lewis Avenue and 517 Shiloh Road.