MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — The holiday season is helping Manatee County in the fight to curb opioid use.

And one ministry is using Christmas trees to help recovering addicts. It's called Loving Hands Ministry.

"I just needed a place to come that could change my life, change everything about me," said member Matthew New.

New learned how to make intricate Christmas wreaths in the Loving Hands program several years ago. He is back after an opioid relapse.

"I know where I was before I came to this ministry and that's not a place that I want to go back to," he said.

Manatee County is winning the battle against opioids, but the war is far from over.

The Sheriff's Office reports 319 overdoses in 2018, well below the 986 they saw this time last year.

While the numbers may be down, the need for treatment is still high.

At Loving Hands, the motto is "buy a tree, prevent an overdose."

"The more trees that people purchase here, the more men that we're able to house and the more men that we can keep off the streets having that temptation who are going to fall into that place of an overdose," said the Rev. Joseph Hamblen, the executive director of Loving Hands Ministry.

It is making the tree buying process more meaningful for some.

"I'm really glad I came here," said customer Julie Zelina. "I have a lot of people who suffer from addiction, so I feel like the universe and God really brought me here."

All the profits go back to the organization, which offers help at no cost to men like New.

"This is for helping a man like me stay off the streets and to learn a new lifestyle, to get away from addiction," he said.

The Loving Hands Ministry has two tree lots — one in Ellenton and one in Bradenton. It will sell the trees until they run out.