BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A friendly competition returned to Bethlehem, where folks don’t exactly throw down — but they do throw a tree. And it’s all for a great cause.

The Christmas tree flying through the air on Saturday morning is a retired one. But don’t worry. It won’t be thrown away in vain.

It’s simply being thrown, for a good cause.

Bethlehem’s 23rd annual Peter Kearns Memorial Christmas Tree Toss had winners in various categories: men, women, children — even fanciest throw.

“Kind of like a fundraiser,” Panayiota Papadopoulos, Training and Education Advocate at Turning Point of Lehigh Valley, said. “Fun fundraiser.”

The fun was so infectious, Papadopoulos couldn’t help but throw her tree outside of the ring as well.

“I wasn’t planning on throwing, but I was like, you know what, why not? It’s kind of fun,” she said.

The fundraiser began more than two decades ago with a friendly bet.

Michael DeCrosta is Service Manager for More Miles Automotive, where the event is held. He and his friend, the late Peter Kearns, who owned Meineke Car Care, started the tradition.

“How did this begin?” DeCrosta announced on the microphone during the event. “Peter Kearns, 23 years ago, said my guys can throw trees farther than yours. I said let’s put money on it.”

“Two different garages come together to do a good thing for the community,” Assistant Manager Patrick Esposito said.

It’s a tale of two garages. Even all those years ago, when the event first came to be, DeCrosta says he and Kearns donated the funds to Turning Point of Lehigh Valley, a nonprofit safe place for domestic abuse survivors. 

“We’re still doing it today,” DeCrosta said.

That money still goes to Turning Point 23 years later.

“There’s more of a need or more people reaching out,” Papadopoulos said. “The holidays are always tough for everybody.”

And this year’s competition was a record setter.

“Guys, 60 feet, 3 inches, is without a doubt the longest throw ever,” DeCrosta said during the competition.

A new record, by a long shot. DeCrosta says the prior record was somewhere in the 30 feet-range.

DeCrosta says this decades-long tradition has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

“Peter Kearns started it,” DeCrosta said. “And we’re not going to let it end.”