As the bright sun hit its peak, Virginia Tech cadet Nick Nelson slung a 7-foot white pine over his shoulder and carried it onto a FedEx truck.

Seeded and grown at Joe's Trees in Craig County, the tree will be one of thousands sent this Christmas to military troops and their families across the country and overseas.

The program, aptly named Trees for Troops, hopes to donate an estimated 17,000 live trees from 29 states this year to military families around the world.

Nelson, 21, knows that in less than a year's time he might be on the receiving end of such a gift, in a faraway place where the smell of burning gunpowder will replace the aroma-rich tree.

"I think it's a great project because I know that I'll be in the same situation, eventually," said Nelson, who will be commissioned in May. "It would just be really nice to receive one of these because it reminds me of home."

The Virginia Tech senior was among five camouflaged cadets Friday afternoon volunteering in the national effort.

At least 400 of those 17,000 trees will be coming from Joe's Trees, a choose-and-cut tree farm off Virginia 42 in Craig County.

The farm has promised to match the number of trees bought by donors this weekend, and will donate at least 400 regardless of how many consumers contribute. Joe's Trees will also give $5 of every purchase to the Christmas Spirit Foundation, the nonprofit group that manages Trees for Troops.

A donor can come to Joe's Trees today and Sunday and purchase a white pine for $25, said Sue Bostic, the farm's owner.

The trees will be packed in FedEx trucks and airplanes for shipping.

One of the recipients could be Janet Dudding's son, who was in kindergarten when he fashioned a Rudolph ornament out of Popsicle sticks and yarn.

Although Dudding's oldest is now an Army sergeant in Kentucky, his mother still hangs the childhood keepsake from the branches of an artificial Christmas tree at her home in New Castle.

Dudding has two other children in the military, neither of whom will be coming home for the holiday.

Instead, she and her boyfriend, Fred Craft, bought a tree from Joe's to send to the troops.

"To me, it's the ultimate sacrifice for them to be away from their families for Christmas," Dudding said. "It's very important for me to let our troops know we're behind them 100 percent."

Joe's Trees is among a dozen or so other tree growers in the state that are participating in the program, Bostic said, but the Craig County farm is the only local farm where consumers can purchase live trees as a donation.

Bostic is one of only two growers in the country who have agreed to match donated trees purchased by consumers, said Nicole Kellogg, spokeswoman for the Christmas Spirit Foundation. The other farm is in California.

It's hard to know how many growers in the state actually participate in the program because their trees are dropped off at designated locations, Kellogg added.

Trees for Troops began in 2005 when FedEx and the Spirit Foundation provided 4,300 real trees to families at five military bases in the U.S. and overseas. In 2006, 12,000 trees were handed out to families at 25 military bases in 17 countries.

This is the third year Joe's Trees has participated in the program.

The family-owned business was started in the 1960s by the late Joe Sublett who served 20 years in the Navy. Bostic, Sublett's daughter, now runs the farm.

"It's near and dear to my heart because my dad did fight. He was in the military," Bostic said. "We have always been taught growing up to understand and respect the military and the jobs they do and be thankful for our freedom."

Although Bostic's father retired from the military before she was born, Bostic still holds her hand across her chest during the national anthem and Pledge of Allegiance. Donating trees is just one more way to show that respect, she said.

"If those soldiers end up with a real Christmas tree, the smell should be enough to bring Christmas to them."