Calder Johnson and Jack Faught, high school sophomores at the time, were thinking ahead to college. It was 2015, and the big question for the teens was: How would they pay?
They wanted to help their families and avoid student loan debt, but their concerns were not just for tuition but all the other expenses that come with living on your own for the first time: Food, school supplies, rent, gasoline, social outings?
That’s when they got an idea. It was the holiday season, and the then 16- and 17-year-olds were working at a Christmas tree lot in Atlanta’s Virginia-Highland neighborhood when they noticed customers were paying $60 to have their trees delivered.
“We were like, ‘What if we just (sold) Christmas trees but didn’t charge for delivery?’” Johnson said.
So there, sitting in his pickup truck with Faught, the seed that sprouted Trees for Tuition was planted.
The childhood friends turned college roommates have since graduated from the University of Georgia and now run six Christmas tree lots across metro Atlanta employing more than 100 people, most of whom are high schoolers and college students. They’ve also launched a scholarship fund to give back to the community that once supported them.
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
But when they first ventured into the Christmas tree business, it was just the two of them. To start, Johnson said they bought 30 trees from a wholesaler and stored them in his mother’s backyard until they had buyers.
“We’d throw them in the back of my truck and drive around to different houses,” he said.
“That’s how we got the attention of our first customers, and most of those people still shop with us today,” Fought chimed in.
Those trees were taking up a lot of space in the yard, though, and after two years, “(my mom) was like, ‘Y’all gotta get out of here,’” Johnson said with a chuckle.
That was the push the college freshmen needed to open their first Trees for Tuition lot. It was on Arizona Avenue by the soccer fields in Edgewood — a lot they still operate today. And the Virginia-Highland lot? That is theirs now, too.
As the years went on, the friends continued juggling their increasing college responsibilities with their growing business. That often meant study sessions doubled as planning meetings — deciding how many trees to buy, when to start selling, what sizes people would want. And as they gained more experience in their areas of study — finance and marketing — they realized they could make a living with the business they’d created.
In 2020, a year before graduation, the duo launched their website and made their biggest purchase yet: 500 trees, which they said sold out before December. They typically start selling the week before Thanksgiving.
“We were like, ‘Well, I guess we should have bought more,’” Johnson laughed. “I think that’s what made us realize, ‘OK, people love what we’re doing. We should try and branch out a little.’”
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
When they graduated in 2021, they were faced with a dilemma: What to do about the name if they no longer needed tuition money?
“It was a pivotal moment for Trees for Tuition. You know, it was like, ‘Do we change? Do we completely change the brand?’” Johnson said. “So we decided to just start our own scholarship fund. The community helped us raise money for our college, and we wanted to kind of turn around and help kids in the community the same way they supported us.”
That same year, they launched the Trees for Tuition Scholarship and were able to help six Atlanta students by awarding them $2,000 each for higher education. Since then, they’ve awarded $36,000 to high school and college students.
“It feels amazing, honestly,” Faught said of how far they’ve come. “We get to do something that makes a ton of people happy ... They’re ready to come get in the holiday spirit, and then on top of that, we get to give out these scholarships to local students, and that just feels amazing.”
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