Million wreaths across America

Christmas is an especially difficult time for anyone grieving for lost loved ones. It is especially painful for America’s military families whose son, daughter, spouse or parent was killed while serving in uniform.

Normally, the fallen are remembered on Memorial Day, but thanks to a Maine family and over hundreds of thousands of donors and volunteers, more than 1.5 million wreaths were laid on the tombstones of our fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen on December 16.

The panoramic view of Arlington National Cemetery’s rolling hills with its white grave markers perfectly aligned with Christmas wreaths is breathtaking. “Tens of thousands of volunteers bundled up on a chilly Saturday morning and helped place more than 245,000 wreaths at grave sites in National Arlington Cemetery,” Washington Examiner reported last weekend.

Since the program started in 1992, more than 1,422 burial grounds across the nation and American national cemeteries in foreign lands have joined. In Washington state, 24 memorial parks located from Walla Walla to Port Orchard participate and there are over 50,000 veterans’ graves on which wreaths could be placed.

Over half of them are at Tahoma’s National Cemetery. Across the Columbia River in Portland, there are 17,500 veterans’ graves at Willamette National Cemetery. In Vancouver, 600 wreaths were placed at Evergreen Memorial Gardens.

Here is how it started.

When Morrill Worcester was a 12-year-old paper boy for the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, he won a trip to Washington D.C. His visit to Arlington National Cemetery made an indelible impression that stayed with him throughout his life.

Years later, Worcester realized that he could use his family business to honor the hundreds of thousands of veterans laid to rest in Arlington.

Founded in 1971, Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington, Maine, is a family-owned business which grows balsam fir in its forests. It has become one of the largest wholesalers of holiday balsam products, providing fresh Maine wreaths, trees and centerpieces.

Wreaths Across America (WAA) sprang from a Worcester gesture in 1992 when they shipped surplus wreaths to Washington, D.C. They were placed on headstones in an older section of the Arlington National Cemetery — the most forgotten part of the burial grounds.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, interest in the project spiked. In fact, the Pentagon, which was struck by a jetliner on that day, is within eyesight of Arlington.

In 2005, when WAA appeared on the internet with a sobering photo of thousands of snow-covered wreaths on Arlington headstones, interest and donations mushroomed.

Wreaths Across America is a privately funded charity that accepts no government money. Delivery of a million wreaths is quite an undertaking this December especially when much of our country is suffering from frigid arctic temperatures, icy roads and blinding blizzards.

Over 100 trucking companies voluntarily load their semi-trailers and their drivers fan out across America. They absorb all of the delivery costs. At Arlington, for example, thousands of volunteers line the road waving flags as the trucks roll up to the entrance.

Morrill Worcester told the Bangor Daily News his first trip to Arlington National Cemetery helped him remember those who gave everything to keep America free. Today, the Wreaths Across America program helps us remember, as well.

The wreaths provide some comfort to families and friends of America’s fallen. They also remind us not to forget those suffering with lifelong mental and physical disabilities from military service.

As a special note this Christmas: In today’s terrorist-infected world, we should include our law enforcement officers and firefighters here at home in our thoughts and prayers. They, too, are in harm’s way every day.

Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He recently retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s oldest and largest business organization, and now lives in Vancouver. He can be contacted at theBrunells@msn.com.