Stand in a cemetery. See all the gravestones of veterans. They’ll remind you of the freedoms these veterans fought for. Every time you lay a wreath read the name on each veterans gravestone. Be grateful for the honor to recognize them for their service and sacrifice.
The mission of Wreaths Across America Day, on Saturday, Dec. 12, is to REMEMBER the fallen, HONOR those who served and TEACH children the meaning of freedom.
Volunteers from Tioga, Bradford and Northern Susquehanna County church, community organizations, the public, school children, and veterans are asked to post an evergreen wreath at the main entrance to a cemetery and on veteran graves.
Families are encouraged place wreaths on the headstones of their related veterans. Our hearts go out to the family members for their brave men and women who sacrificed for the peace and freedom we enjoy today.
Individual citizens accompanied by their kids may visit a cemetery and lay a wreath so a veteran isn’t forgotten during the Christmas season.
Local organizers hope 2015 will be the year that a wreath can be placed on every veteran grave. Wreaths Across America is held at Christmastime because it is a way to honor and remember loved ones at a time when families traditionally come together.
Veterans and Gold Star Families will lay remembrance wreaths for Tioga County’s 172 fallen heroes including POWs and MIAs, especially from the early Korean War, at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial at noon on Saturday, Dec. 12. This touching ceremony ensures those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country are never forgotten during this holiday season.
Rev. G. Terry Steenburg will bless the wreaths and offer the invocation and benediction. Bonnie Baker-Duff, president of the Daughters of Civil War Union Veterans, will lay a wreath at the nearby Tioga County Union Memorial. Families and friends will place wreaths in cemeteries.
American Legion and VFW members in Nichols, Waverly, Sayre, Spencer Van Etten and Candor are asked to hold ceremonies at veteran memorials and cemeteries in their communities and double check for a remembrance wreath at the main entrance.
In Waverly, Friends of Waverly Cemetery Preservation as well as village and town officials will participate. Waverly churches including First Baptist, Methodist, First Presbyterian and St. James are requested to ring their bells at noon.
National Wreaths Across America Day celebrates its 24th anniversary at noon on Saturday, Dec. 12, at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. At approximately 1,000 veteran cemeteries in the United States, 25 veteran cemeteries on foreign soil and naval ships on the seven seas, volunteers will lay thousands of wreaths on veteran headstones.
The continuing theme is, “Don’t Say I Should Have, Say I Did.”
Past themes describe the meaning of the day: “The Christmas They Never Had,” “In Honor of Those Who Have Had to Spend a Holiday Away From a Loved One,” “In Memory of Those Who Never Made It Home” and “Come With a Mission, Leave With a Memory.”
Participating Owego area veterans represent the Tioga County Marine Corps League, Afghanistan and Iraq and Desert Storm Veterans of Modern Warfare, Vietnam Veterans of America, Tioga Post 401 American Legion and its Ladies and Sons Auxiliaries and Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Ladies and Men’s Auxiliaries and peacetime veterans.
The wreaths will honor in a very special way those willing to sacrifice that we might have freedom and our way of life, remember so that their service and sacrifice is never forgotten and teach so that those who follow will know and understand and make sure past efforts were not in vain.
It is surprising to see the number of veterans who are buried in local cemeteries. It is worth one’s time to drive through, get out and walk through the entire cemetery. There are veterans of the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Union as well as Confederate, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and many more who served in the cold war and peacetime.
For more information and to report your activities and suggestions, contact Glenn A. Warner Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1371 Memorial Chairman Jim Raftis by email to jraftis2@stny.rr.com or by calling (607) 687-4229.
