(Featured image: Bobby Snyder of American Post 71 reenacts the playing of Taps at National Wreaths Across America Day Ceremony at the Hammond Cemetery in North Augusta on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. File photo Mike Adams/Augusta Good News)
What started as a way to honor veterans at Arlington National Cemetery has grown to include veterans buried in cemeteries all across the country.
And this year, it’s expanding to more cemeteries in the Augusta area.
Wreaths Across America has a goal to ensure that no veteran is forgotten.
A ceremony will be held at noon Dec. 16 simultaneously at more than 4,000 locations in all 50 states including Augusta area cemeteries and memorial parks such as Magnolia Cemetery, Bellevue Memorial Gardens, Grovetown, Hillcrest Memorial Park, Hammond Cemetery, North Augusta, Sunset Memorial Gardens, Graniteville, S.C., Saint Paul’s Church, according to the Wreaths Across America website.
“It will be brief,” said Jerry Murphy at Augusta’s Magnolia Cemetery. “Afterwards, they are to disperse about 190 wreaths.”
Murphy said this was the first time Magnolia had participated.
Wreaths Across America started in 1992.
A ceremony was held at the Hammond Cemetery last year with the Daughters of the American Revolution presiding. It was one of 3,400 sites observing the event in 2022.
Read More: In pictures: Wreaths Across America 2022
Morrill Worcester, the owner of Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine, had visited Washington, D.C. as a boy. One of the stops was at Arlington and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, according to the Wreaths Across America website.
“In 1992, Worcester Wreath found themselves with a surplus of wreaths nearing the end of the holiday season. Remembering his boyhood experience at Arlington, Worcester realized he had an opportunity to honor our country’s veterans. With the aid of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe (ret), arrangements were made for the surplus wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older cemetery sections that had been receiving fewer visitors each passing year,” the website said.
“Volunteers from the local American Legion and VFW Posts gathered with members of the community to decorate each wreath with traditional red, hand-tied bows. Members of the Maine State Society of Washington D.C., helped to organize the wreath-laying, which included a special ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”
To learn more and find a map of cemeteries, visit the website.
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