ROCKPORT and CAMDEN — Christmas and Boxing Day have now come and gone, and while some people like to keep the tree up at least until New Year's Day, others move quickly to take it down and put the house back together before the year ends. Either way, when you are done undecorating the tree, there's a group of middle school students who will save you the trip to the transfer station's chipper.

The Camden and Rockport Christmas tree pick-up service is a fundraiser for the Camden-Rockport Middle School Japanese Exchange Program. For a tax-deductible donation, all you have to do is sign up and leave the tree in your yard, and the students will do the rest.

Pick-up days are Saturday, Jan. 3 and/or Jan. 10.

For 16 years, C-RMS has sponsored a student exchange program with the school board of Hirakawa in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. Each year, students from Hiramawa spent a week in Maine and students from Camden and Rockport spend more than a week in Japan.

Ten eighth-grade C-RMS students, randomly drawn from a pool of hopeful participants, will be joined by two chaperones for this year’s April trip to Japan.

This year's C-RMS student ambassadors include Hope Bifulco, Sol Caponigro, Henry Chamberlin, Rebecca Cox, Jon Heath, Maddie Holt, Devon Lammert, Miranda Marsh, Connor O'Farrell and Maddie Winslow

Also this year, the student ambassadors from Hirakawa will be visiting the local community in January, staying with local C-RMS students and attending school with their peers, among other activities.

To travel to Japan, the school needs to raise $35,000 and the Christmas tree pick-up service is one of the many fundraising events on their pre-trip schedule.

To sign up for a Christmas tree pickup, click here.