Decking out the dump with Christmas cheer
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
The adage, "One man's trash is another man's treasure," could not be more true than at the island's landfill where Waste Options recycling employee Lori Geddes has garnered lots of attention for decorating the staff shed with discarded holiday materials.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent Lori Geddes with "the most beautiful tree on the island."

Geddes first found a tiny fake Christmas tree someone was tossing in the bulky items bin and stuck it in the lattice by the shed just to add a cheerful touch. When a resident admired the little tree, Geddes happily gave it to her and then asked the Take It or Leave It attendant to keep watch for another artificial tree. Sure enough, one showed up, but in sorry condition with crumpled branches and a few faulty ornaments. Undaunted by the tree's appearance and full of yuletide spirit, Geddes proceeded to do a Christmas make-over that turned out better than she imagined.

"The day I sat outside pulling the branches out you never saw people so happy at the dump," she said. "They were going by singing, 'Fa la la la la.' "

Though the tree is a bit wobbly, having lost one of the three legs on its stand, Geddes made it balance well enough and displayed the tree complete with twinkly lights, plenty of shiny ornaments and an angel on top so it can be seen clearly through the shed window as people discard their trash. The day after the tree was decorated she rescued a three-foot happy snowman with a Japanese lantern-style body that was being thrown out and hung him on the fence. More recently, she intercepted the demise of a painted wooden Nutcracker figure, did her best to repair his broken arm and placed him at the foot of the Christmas tree.

"Since I've done this I've seen people come by and say, 'Merry Christmas.' It just brings a little cheer to the dump. One woman said to me, 'That's the most beautiful tree on the island because it was going to go in the trash and you made it festive.' I thought that

was a nice thing." I