Wreaths Across America

From Wreaths Across America.org
"Wreaths Across America"

          National Wreaths Across America Day
                               December 16, 2017

Each December on National Wreaths Across America Day, our mission to Remember, Honor and Teach is carried out by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as over 1,200 additional locations in all 50 U.S. states, at sea, and abroad.

History (From Wikipedia)

Beginning in 1992, the Morrill Worcester wreath company in Harrington, Maine, had a surplus at the end of the holiday season. Recalling a boyhood trip to the cemetery, Worcester donated to the cemetery 5,000 wreaths to honor the cemetery's dead, with the help of volunteers and a local trucking company. After thirteen years of similar donations, in 2005 a photo of snowy gravestones covered with wreaths at the cemetery received widespread circulation on the Internet. Thousands of people called Worcester, wanting to replicate the wreath-laying service at their own veteran cemeteries.  In 2006, over 150 different locations simultaneously held ceremonies with Arlington's. Additionally, the project had its first “Veterans Honor Parade” with "Patriot Guard Riders" who escorted the wreaths from Maine to the cemetery. The parade, which is held each year, now visits schools, monuments, veterans’ homes and communities along its route. At the end of 2006, Worcester's company supplied wreaths to over 230 state and national cemeteries and veterans monuments across the country. Assisted by veterans and truckers, Worcester established in 2007 a nonprofit organization named "Wreaths Across America". In December 2008, the United States Senate agreed to a resolution that designated December 13, 2008, as “Wreaths Across America Day”.  In 2014, volunteers placed over 700,000 memorial wreaths at 1,000 locations in the United States and overseas, including the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and the National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site in New York City. During that year, volunteers were able to place wreaths in all sections of the cemetery for the first time. In 2016, this number increased to 1.2 million wreaths being placed at more than 1,230 cemeteries across the nation.  

^ I donated this year as I have every year since 2014. ^

http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/