December 15, 2021, And Every Wednesday
By Linda Case Gibbons, Esq.
(Check out Lest We Forget and FYI.)
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It’s easy to be cynical. And today, there’s plenty of reason.
But magic will always win the day.
Always. Even when the news outlets don’t cover it.
Today at the Veterans Museum in Holmdel, N.J., there was Christmas magic in the air.
A convoy of tractor trailers from Harrington, Maine, wound its way down a New Jersey hillside, to the Veterans Museum, motorcycles, sheriffs, state troopers and police escorts leading the way.
The trucks were filled with Christmas wreaths, on their way to Arlington Cemetery.
One man’s vision began this annual custom.
In 1992 Morrill Worcester, the owner of Worcester Wreath Company, decided to donate a surplus of Christmas wreaths, and lay them in the older section of Arlington Cemetery, an area that had come to have few visitors over the years.
Volunteers from the VFW and American Legion decorated the wreaths with hand-tied red bows.
A local Maine trucking company provided transportation.
And members of the Maine State Society of Washington, D.C. organized the laying of the wreaths in Arlington.
“The annual tribute went on quietly for several years,” Worcester said, “until 2005, when a photo of the stones at Arlington, adorned with wreaths and covered in snow, circulated around the internet.”
The project received national attention, every state wanting to participate.
When the project became too large for the Worcester family to handle alone, in 2007 the family, veterans and other groups formed Wreaths Across America, a 501-(c)(3) non-profit organization.
And the project has grown. With the help of American patriots.
In 2008, over 100,000 wreaths were placed on veterans’ graves, with over 60,000 volunteers participating.
In 2014, 700,000 wreaths were laid.
And this year, 1.75 million wreaths were shipped, with veterans and Gold Star families as some of the 2 million volunteers nationwide, who prepare, ship and place the wreaths on graves.
The Wreaths Across America convoy takes a week to make its pilgrimage to Arlington, stopping at schools, monuments, veterans’ homes and communities along the way.
“Thank God, Veterans and U.S. Armed Forces,” was blazoned on the side of one truck. “Support Our Troops. We Will Never Forget” on another.
In speaking with Frank, a Vietnam veteran at the event today, we told him a dear friend of ours, also a Vietnam vet, had recently passed away, but that had he been there today, he wouldn’t have liked to be treated special, as a veteran.
Frank agreed. He said it took him a long time to put on the “Vietnam Vet” cap he was wearing.
Our soldiers have been through hell and back. But when we thanked him for his service, he thanked us.
“People turning out today,” he said, “made me feel that I am not alone.”
Even if the media tells you something different, this is what America is all about.
And magic always wins the day.
Hold the line, America.
Let's Go, Brandon!
Stay strong, Patriots
*Wreaths Across America website