Brittany's Trees

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Brittany's Trees

Brittany's Trees is a unique Holiday tradition done in the Greater Chicagoland area - Carol Stream Brittany was a wonderful little girl with a great big smile.

On behalf of the entire Brittany’s Trees family, I would like to invite each and every one of you to join us in celebrating her memory and come together to overcome this unfamiliar condition that weighs heavily on too many innocent people. Brittany was an eight year old third grade student at Heritage Lakes Elementary. She was born with a heart condition that with medication was thought to be cont

rolled and allow her to live a normal life. She enjoyed riding her bicycle up and down the sidewalk, going down the big slide at the park and jumping on the trampoline in her back yard. She enjoyed cheerleading and also took Irish dance lessons. She was mature for her age and could hold her own in conversations with adults. Brittany was an outgoing little girl that was a pleasure to be around. She was happy, polite and an over-all great kid. Brittany passed away in February 2005. She was living with a congenital heart condition called Long QT Syndrome. Brittany’s vibrant spirit has inspired the wonderful neighbors of Kingsport Ridge, family and friends to come together every year on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. The morning begins with our friends and family surrounded by hundreds of Christmas trees, warming up with some hot chocolate (spirits for those of age), and coordinating the day’s festivities. After the morning congregation, we split up into teams and go from house to house spreading the Holiday spirit to all of those who are so kind to participate. The trees are delivered and the members of our team string the lights. All we ask is that you run an extension cord out to your tree. As the Holiday season winds down, our team will reunite and come around to disassemble your tree for you.

05/01/2026

SADS Foundation was in Chicago for Heart Rhythm 2026. “Bringing the World of EP (Electrophysiology) together.”

Tony Valene and I were able to meet the team for dinner. Thank you to Board Member; Tim Hansen and his wife Jande, for hosting a wonderful dinner and evening at their condo in Chicago. It is an honor to part of an organization made up of wonderful people, doing great things.

SADS FOUNDATION Team:
Ken Woodhouse - Director of Philanthropy
Anna Goodson - Director of Communications
Erica Sontheimer - Genetic Counselor
Erin Waite - Director of Program Operations
Genevieve Echols - Director of Family Support
Walker Frahm - CEO

04/15/2026

HUGE shout out to Annette Murphy and Bags for Life committee for donating $1,000 to Brittany’s Trees! Thank you so much for your generous donation to Brittany’s Trees/SADS Foundation. 🌲❤️😃

02/24/2026

Happy Rare Disease Week to our rare heart community!🦓💛

To all our inherited arrhythmia families: your condition might be rare, but we want you to know that you're not alone. We're here for you! This week we’re shining a light on CPVT, LQTS, Brugada, ARVC (aka ACM), SQTS, IVF, and more.

Drop a 🦓 if you’re part of the rare heart community - and share one thing you wish more people understood.

🏷️

02/19/2026

Huge Shout out to Matt McCarthy and Bags for Life Committee for setting aside Feb 18 as the Brittany’s Trees/Jake Seither Cancer Survivor Night.

It’s a 13 night bags/raffle tourney raising money for charities and food pantries in Carol Stream and surrounding towns. We were night #6. Such an awesome event ran by some great people. Matt even put out decorative Christmas trees on every table. 🌲🌲🌲

If you want to support and try your chance at winning an awesome raffle, tickets are $5. You can Zelle Matt McCarthy at 630-251-3572 and in text, include your name and item you want in raffle.

Drawing will be held at Chrissy’s Bar on March 12th.

01/21/2026

Brittany’s Trees Family & Friends -

Bags-for-Life is a bags tournament held in Carol Stream at Chrissy’s Gaming Bar & Grill. Showing pics from the 2025 event.

Excited to announce that they have reserved Wednesday, February 18th as Brittany's Trees/Jake Seither Cancer Survivor Night. Great event. So much fun! You’re playing bags indoors! Awesome raffle prizes. LET’S GOOOO.

We need 20 teams/40 people. $20 per person. Guaranteed 2 games. Message me or text me to sign up.

Thanks,
Jim Guthrie
312-961-9558

01/15/2026

So cool! Brittany’s Trees was being represented tonight at the United Center for the Bulls vs Jazz game. Congratulations to Dan and Kim Bird for winning the 2025 event raffle. Thank you to Landscape Material and Firewood Supplies for donating their United Center Suite. 🌲🏀🌲🏀🌲

01/07/2026

Brittany's Trees Family and Friends -

Please join me in giving a special shout out to ALL our 200+ volunteers and Team Leads - and especially to some incredible neighbors on Matthew Lane who help manage Brittany's Trees. It takes a lot to make it happen; so many moving parts i.e. availability of volunteers, weather conditions, trailers, routes, lunch etc. The neighbors and volunteers step up every year. THANK YOU!!!

From the 2025 (Record Breaking Snow Day) event, we will donate $40,000 to the SADS Foundation. It brings our 21 year total to $571,000. 1,650 trees were delivered to 30 towns in Chicagoland area.

Brittany's Trees Matthew Lane Team Members:
Tom Bosler and Robin Olsen
Dan and Kim Bird
Mark and Linda Burkart
Dave and Ruth Groh
Roberta Guthrie
Tony Valene
Mary Joyce and Bugs
Ferd Gustafson
Jim Falkiewicz

Cheers,
Jim

01/04/2026

Shout out to this wonderful group of neighbors who helped with Brittany Tree takedown. We took down 150+ trees in Carol Stream and donated an additional $1,500 to the SADS Foundation . ❤️🌲😀

01/02/2026

Happy New Year!

For those Carol Stream neighbors who purchased a Brittany’s Tree for $80 which included takedown, we will be taking down your tree on Saturday, January 3rd.

We will put your tree to the curb for normal scheduled Flood Brothers garbage pick up and we will leave your lights and post by your front porch. Please have any ornaments, garland and/or star removed as volunteers will only be taking down trees that do not have additional decorations. THANK YOU for another special and memorable year!

May GOD Bless you and shine his light upon you and your family in 2026!

Jim

12/26/2025

Tony Valene, Dan Bird and myself had the pleasure of meeting Ken Woodhouse (Director of Partners and Philanthropy) from the SADS Foundation. He is from Tennessee and visiting family for Christmas.

So good to hear of the progress and advancement with (SupRep)Gene Therapy. It is a dual gene therapy approach called suppression-and-replacement: This technique uses a single vector to suppress the patient’s faulty LQTS gene and replace it with a healthy version. Preclinical success in cell and animal models shows that gene therapy can fix the underlying electrical defects that cause LQTS prolongation. We are in year 1 of 5 for this Beta test.

Thank you Sylvia and Mapleberry’s for a wonderful breakfast.

Address

648 Matthew Lane
Carol Stream, IL
60188

Telephone

+16303306246

Website

http://www.brittanys-trees.com/

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