In the Spirit of the Season : Blind Man’s Vision Outlives Him as Massive Tree Giveaway Keeps His Caring Spirit Alive

Bob Porter may have been without sight, but the several thousand Christmas trees given away this weekend were testimony to his vision.

A blind man and longtime activist for the disabled, Porter had provided more than 150,000 trees to poor and needy families throughout Los Angeles from 1969 until his death last year at 54.

In his memory, volunteers for the nonprofit Bob Porter Foundation kicked off a massive three-day tree giveaway Sunday at a giant lot adjoining the USC campus, where more than 10,000 trees are expected to be given by Tuesday.

“If Bob was here now and could see all these people enjoying the trees, he would probably be in tears,” said Fred Williams, a member of the foundation’s board of directors, who was helping to contain the crowd at the lot near Vermont Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard.

“But Bob Porter was not just a Christmas tree man,” Williams said, “he was a man about people.”

Traffic near the lot was often backed up for several blocks as a steady stream of seven- and eight-foot trees, donated by growers throughout Southern California, flowed across the street to waiting cars. Families struggled to strap them to roofs, stuff them into trunks or simply drag them to nearby homes, leaving pine needles scattered for blocks in every direction.

“Money’s kind of tight this year and I didn’t think we would get a tree,” said Greg Humphries, 32, an unemployed copier technician from Pasadena. “Now my 9-year-old boy’s going to be ecstatic.”

Miguel Sanchez Alvarenga, 28, who hauled a tree over his shoulder for five blocks to his aunt’s house, said his family also could not afford to buy one.

“We don’t have enough money,” said Sanchez, an unemployed Honduran immigrant. “Here, I have a present.”

And an 83-year-old man, who said it would embarrass his family if he gave his name, hunched over to pick up a tree for his 5-year-old great-granddaughter.

“We grandparents try to do all we can for the kids,” the man said. “We got to feed them, so something like this really helps.”

Porter, who was a diabetic and lost his sight and legs to the disease, was awakened to a life of community activism during the 1967 Christmas season while sitting in a grubby Los Angeles bar feeling sorry for himself.

A sympathetic prostitute had handed him a dollar, he said in a 1970 interview with The Times, and he vowed to overcome his feelings of shame by turning his talents toward helping other people.

After working for VISTA, Porter decided he could persuade tree farms and supermarkets to donate surplus trees during the week before Christmas. The first year, he collected 1,500 trees. In 1984, the last Christmas he was alive, more than 25,000 were handed out.

Last year, volunteers for the Bob Porter Foundation, which Porter founded shortly before his death, distributed about 12,000.

“In a way, it’s lonely because he’s not here,” said Vicky Garcia, president of the foundation. “But his spirit is still with us. One way or another we can feel his presence.”