WASHINGTON -- Anna DeVolld knows something about Christmas trees: Her family has six of them at home in Soldotna.
But those trees are unlikely to compare to the 74-foot Lutz spruce tree from the Chugach National Forest that DeVolld, 10, helped light Wednesday night from the steps of the U.S. Capitol building.
Anna's essay expounding on the importance of the first Alaska Christmas tree to grace the Capitol lawn won her the chance to flip the switch, along with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin).
The event drew a solid crowd of Alaskans, easily identifiable by a shortage of umbrellas in the misty rain, with a temperature in the 50s that more than one person noted is a bit closer to an Alaska summer day. They were joined by a beaming congressional delegation and Gov. Bill Walker, who was also in town to testify at an energy committee hearing Thursday.
Each year, the Forest Service chooses a tree from a national forest area to make the trek to Washington, D.C., to adorn the Capitol lawn, paid for by corporate sponsors and volunteers. This is the first tree from Alaska -- and the first to travel part of its journey by boat, the start of a more-than 4,000 mile trip from coast to coast.
During the ceremony Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan chided Ryan, saying the Chugach National Forest might just be bigger than his home state of Wisconsin. (It's not. Wisconsin is six times as large as the Chugach.)
"For our delegation, this is quite a proud moment," said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, whose office took the lead on orchestrating the effort.
To "see this tree and know that it comes not too far from a part of the state that I call home, to see the awe of others as they look at it, I just feel an amazing sense of pride, and gratitude for the many, many hundreds of Alaskans who came together to show this off," Murkowski said after the event.
"I just came here when it was planted," Alaska Rep. Don Young said in a speech that drew laughs from the crowd. " And they keep trying to cut me down. But they're not gonna do it."
"This is a joy for us Alaskans. A symbol of Alaska: tall, proud and, other than myself, beautiful," Young said.
But for the moments before the tree was lit, all eyes were on DeVolld, whose face sprang into a wide smile as she flipped the switch to turn on the lights -- what she later said was her favorite part of the night.
"She and her sister were just precious. I think they stole the show," Sullivan said of Anna and her sister Sara, 8. "They're very smart -- and I got to chat with [Anna] and her mom and dad, and it makes me proud," Sullivan said.
"I was feeling very excited, and I just couldn't wait to turn it on," Anna said of her time in the spotlight. "I'm proud that everyone came all the way to Washington, D.C., and the tree came too, just so that we could have a Christmas tree from Alaska, and so they could see me light the tree," she said.
"I was very pleased with the number of Alaskans that were here," Gov. Walker said at the reception following the tree lighting.
Walker said this is his second Washington, D.C., tree lighting. "My folks were trying to get some legislation changed for Alaska" in 1960, and brought the whole family to the district for about four months when he was in the fourth grade, he said. That year he saw President Dwight D. Eisenhower light the tree in front of the White House, and soon after, the inaugural parade of President John F. Kennedy.
"So that's kind of a moment for me, to be back," he said. Walker's wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson were also in town for the event.
"I'd like to see this as a rejuvenation of our timber industry, but one tree at a time at Christmas isn't quite going to do that," Walker added. "But yeah, it was very meaningful to be here."
In addition to the thousands of ornaments provided by Alaskans, two special additions were made to the tree Wednesday night.
One was a traditional gift from the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, presented during the event by the society's president, Ronald Sarasin, a former member of Congress from Connecticut. He said the ornament included marble from the east steps of the U.S. Capitol building, installed in the 1860s and removed during a 1995 restoration project.
The second ornament came from Murkowski, who took Anna by the hand after the ceremony on the Capitol steps and spirited her away to the tree, where they charmed their way past the guards to sneak another Alaska ornament onto the tree.
Murkowski got the ornament from "a young woman from Homer," she said, who told the senator that she was disappointed that one of her creations -- an ornament filled with Alaska wildflowers, was not chosen to go on the Capitol tree.
"I told [Anna], 'we're going to do something that maybe some people will say that we can't do, but we are going to use executive authority,'" Murkowski said.
"I made sure that I asked permission of the Architect of the Capitol and the two guards when we busted over the gates," Murkowski noted, insisting that she hadn't quite gone rogue in her tree-decorating efforts.
Murkowski chose Anna's essay as the winner herself, after some help winnowing down the hundreds of options sent in from students around the state.
It "was a pretty darn good essay," Murkowski said.
"But it was quite a shock to hear Sen. Murkowski on the phone -- a little surreal. Wonderful, but a little surreal," said Anna's mother, Shona DeVolld.
The fifth-grader is home-schooled, and she and her sister do a writing project each week, Shona said. The Christmas tree essay was one of them. "But Anna put so much into it and took it so seriously that she asked if she could make it a two-week long project. So it drew out for those two weeks, and I'm awfully glad that we extended that," she said.
Anna read her essay to an Alaska crowd assembled at the U.S. Botanic Gardens for a reception Wednesday night in a presentation that was to be followed by Kenaitze dancers and Juneau-based dance group Yaaw Tei Yi. The Seward-based band Blackwater Railroad Company, which traveled across the country with the tree, performed throughout the reception.
Anna was most looking forward to visiting the Spy Museum during the remainder of her visit.
The winning essay, by Anna DeVolld
A Christmas tree from the Chugach National Forest is a special symbol of Alaska to the nation. The tree lights display the Aurora Borealis, shimmering across the heavens. Tinsel resembles the Alaskan glaciers that sparkle day and night.
Ornaments represent the wild Alaskan creatures that dot the forests, sky, and seas. A tall, colorful Christmas tree mirrors the towering Alaskan mountains. Evergreen needles symbolize the Alaskan's adventurous spirit that never fades. Strong spruce branches stand for Alaskans freedom that survives despite troubles. Alaskan Christmas trees are special because they are a symbol of Alaskan pride.