Wreaths Across America Saturday

By MIKE McCOY

Statesman Staff Writer

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - The Wreaths Across America program at the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield will be held at 11 a.m. this Saturday. This marks the fourth year the ceremony will be held there. The support from the community helped sponsor over 1,500 wreaths to be placed on the gravesites across the cemetery.

Ken Swearengen, director of the State Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield, said there were sufficient wreaths sponsored to place one on every site, which marks the second year this has happened. There will be enough wreaths to also contribute to veteran's graves in some other cemeteries in the county. The official nationwide ceremony is held at noon at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The event is held simultaneously all over the country which is why it is at 11 a.m. here.

The theme of the ceremony this year is "The Christmas They Never Had."

Teresa Wright, fundraising chairperson with the area Patriot Guard Riders, said the local success of the program is due to the overwhelming support of Southeast Missouri people and organizations. She also wanted to thank several youth groups who helped raise funds for wreath sponsorship. Last year the social studies class of Ranan Hester at T.S. Hill Middle School raised money to sponsor wreaths and received red caps from Wreaths Across America, a non-profit group that oversees the national program. Wright said this year three more student groups in addition to Hester's class helped raised money for wreaths. They included the entire enrollment at Bloomfield Elementary, the Star Banner 4-H Club in Dexter and the Advance Clovers 4-H Club in Advance. All these students will receive red hats prior to the ceremony Saturday.

Wright said she hoped the students will attend the ceremony wearing the red hats to show their support.

Randy Dunn, Patriot Guard Rider president in Southeast Missouri, will again be the master of ceremonies.

Twenty years ago, wreath company owner Morrill Worcester and a dozen other people laid 5,000 wreaths on headstones at Arlington National Cemetery. It was Worcester's way of giving thanks to the nation's veterans with leftover unsold wreaths.

This year, Worcester has arranged for up to 100,000 wreaths to be placed on gravesites at the military cemetery on Dec. 10 in his biggest wreath-laying undertaking yet.

A convoy of more than 20 trucks left Worcester Wreath Co. in the eastern Maine town of Harrington on Sunday to begin the six-day journey to the cemetery in Arlington, Va., outside Washington, the final resting place for hundreds of thousands of veterans and a tourist site that draws four million visitors a year.

Worcester never expected the wreath-laying effort to grow from a single tractor-trailer carrying a few thousand wreaths to 84 big rigs delivering wreaths to Arlington and hundreds of locations. Besides the Arlington ceremony, his Wreaths Across America organization has organized more than 700 other ceremonies at veterans' cemeteries and monuments across the country and overseas involving a total of 225,000 wreaths.

"We haven't really tried to push it; it's really just grown on its own," Worcester said. "We have a hard time keeping up with it."

Worcester, who has never served in the military, came up with the idea of a wreath-laying ceremony 20 years ago when he found himself with an extra 5,000 wreaths in December, too late to bring to market. He decided upon Arlington National Cemetery, which he had visited as a child.

After that first year, Worcester continued donating wreaths and holding ceremonies at the cemetery. The event remained relatively small with little fanfare until a photo, showing thousands of green wreaths with red ribbons nestled against headstone on a snow-covered ground, made its way around the Internet about five years ago.

After that, Worcester got thousands of emails and letters from people wanting to donate, and inquiries from others asking how they could hold wreath-laying ceremonies of their own to pay tribute to those who have served in the military. So he and his wife founded the not-for-profit Wreaths Across America to take in donations and organize hundreds of wreath-laying ceremonies at veterans' cemeteries.

Wreaths Across America put 24,000 wreaths on Arlington headstones last year and initially hoped to put them on virtually all 220,000 headstones this year. That initiative fell short, but Worcester said he's still pleased that they'll be able to put out 100,000 of the laurels.

Of the 225,000 wreaths in all of this year's ceremonies, Worcester is donating 25,000. His company makes the rest, but they are paid by donations from groups and individuals and through corporate sponsorships.

The ceremony at the cemetery in Bloomfield has drawn big crowds. Last year it was a cold, rainy day, but many still attended to show their support. Swearengen said he had been watching weather reports and Saturday is supposed to be cold but dry. Regardless, the ceremony will go on to honor veterans who sacrificed much for their country.