December 2020

Question:

Dear Abbot Pennings:

Is it true that the college supplies the Christmas tree for Lambeau Field?

Brett Buboltz ’08

Answer:

My dearest Brett,

Although we have many fine trees on our dear campus, we do not have so many firs that we could responsibly fulfill such a role for our neighbors, pleasant as it would be to help out our wonderful Green Bay Packers. However, there was one Christmas, I call to mind, that the college found itself able to donate a tree to our Titletown friends. It was a splendid blue spruce, and this is its story.

In December of 2007, we were excitedly making preparations for the construction of our new library – now, the much-loved Mulva Library. A tree outside the college parish offices (on Third Street at that time, I do believe) needed to be removed to make room for the new building. Our dear Cathie Puyleart, then office manager of the parish, submitted an irrefutable proposal to the Green Bay Packers inviting them to use the 45-foot spruce for their upcoming Festival of Lights. This prize tree was gingerly taken down and, with a police escort, was delivered to historic Lambeau Field.

It was the tree’s destiny to shine in the famed home of the Frozen Tundra, and merrily, our campus made it so! This blessed Christmastide may I hope, dear Brett, that you, too, will find joy in the symbols of the season and that your heart may be filled, as is mine, with hope for the new year. Merry Christmas to one and all!

Responses to “Ask the Abbot” questions are penned by St. Norbert College staff in the name of Abbot Bernard Pennings, who founded St. Norbert College in 1898.