by Phoenix and Metric

A childhood visit to Arlington Cemetery inspired one of the largest salutes to Veterans around the world. Morrill and Karen Worcester of Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine started this tradition in 1992. Morrill had a surplus of wreaths left over after the Christmas season, so Morrill was inspired to donate the leftover wreaths to Arlington Cemetery to honor the Veterans who have given the ultimate sacrifice. The annual event steadily continued to grow until 2005 after a picture of the snow-covered wreaths hit the internet and it exploded into a national event. In 2008, Congress designated the day as ‘Wreaths Across America Day”. Today, wreaths are placed on Veteran’s graves on the second or third weekend in December around the world. This year we added one more location to the mix. Lakeview Memorial Gardens in Avon Park, Florida continued the tradition by hosting their first annual Wreaths Across America wreath laying ceremony. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to our first event. Special recognition to the American Legion Riders from Post 69 in Avon Park for showing up in force and contributing the largest number of wreaths.

I would like to challenge all clubs, organizations, and businesses to support this worthy endeavor. Our hopes and dreams are that every Veteran around the world will have a wreath someday. For more information on Wreaths Across America go to: www.WreathsAcrossAmerica.org.