If you have ever seen an image of a snowy Arlington Cemetery, evergreen wreaths with a bright red bow placed row upon row on every veterans’ grave, you are familiar with the work of Wreaths Across America.
While soldiers assigned to the Washington D.C. area place a small American flag at every grave in Arlington for each Memorial Day, neither the U.S. military nor federal government provides decorations for veterans’ graves during other times of the year.
Wreath Across America (WAA) not only honors veterans in Arlington National Cemetery, but at over 2,500 locations in the U.S., at sea, and several locations abroad. With St. Cloud’s Mount Peace cemetery one of only four AA cemeteries in the Greater Orlando area, it is no surprise that the Wreath’s Across America Mobile Education Exhibit (MEE) literally rolled into Centennial Park on Oct. 26.
“The Mobile Exhibit is one of the ways that WAA seeks to achieve its mission to ‘Remember, Honor and Teach’ about the sacrifice of America’s veterans and their families,” according to Stefan Brann, the exhibit’s Ambassador. “These are not holiday wreaths, but a token of remembrance and thanks. Each time a volunteer places a wreath at a veteran’s grave, they say the name on the headstone out loud, along with the words ‘Thank you,’” Brann said.
The MEE, which consists of a trailer and tractor truck, along with smaller exhibits set around the outside the trailer once deployed, has been on the road since 2017. The exhibit is essentially a mobile museum, with several interactive stations and a small video screening room. The exhibit was started to complete the “Teach” portion of WAA’s mission, to educate Americans, and especially our youth, to understand the sacrifices that have been made to ensure our freedoms.
It also serves as a community’s official “welcome home” station for Vietnam veterans by WAA staff providing an official pin to each Vietnam veteran they encounter, with over 1,000 “pinned” this year to date.
In 2020, over 2.2 million wreaths were placed in Arlington Cemetery and participating cemeteries. Currently, Mount Peace is funded by six local veterans’ organizations, which also provide the volunteers to place the wreaths in December and remove them at a later date. This year, wreath-laying will be on Dec.18, with volunteers for the community welcome. The activity starts at 7 a.m. and there will be a brief ceremony at 10 a.m.
When asked how a community can enroll their local cemetery as a WAA location, Region 2 Liaison Trish Garner said, “It takes volunteers and getting sponsorships, but we had a 12-year-old girl in Painesville, Ohio who was able to get her local cemetery into the WAA program.”
More information about Wreaths Across America can be found at www. wreathsacrossamerica.org and a video on the Exhibit is at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK6rgTEndQU .
