'Wreaths Across America' Event At Noon Dec. 13

East Hartford Gazette - East Hartford, CT, USA

By: John Karas 12/08/2008

Traditionally, laurels honor fallen heroes.
Now, in winter's holiday month, boughs of evergreens are a new method of saluting those who served their country.

December 13 at Hillside cemetery in East Hartford the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Veterans of Foreign Wars plan to place wreaths to help memorialize the town's honored dead.

The notion was the inspiration of a Maine businessman who had too many decorations on his hand after the 1992 holiday season.

Morrill Worcester, owner of the Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine wondered "instead of throwing away the company's unsold stock, why not use it to decorate the graves at Arlington National Cemetery?"

The idea took hold, and veterans groups joined in, wanting to help in any way they could. Soon, tractor trailer loads of Maine-made wreaths were being escorted along Route 1 through Connecticut on their way to Arlington, Virginia. Sixteen years later, a convoy carrying more than 100,000 wreaths will soon be on its way to veterans' cemeteries around the country. Local patriotic groups and civic organizations now have adopted the event as a way to include veterans in our lives during the holidays.

So "Wreaths-Across-America" was born.

And there is no snow date for the December 13 event. So this month the organization that grew out of that small wintertime seed sowed Downeast now helps coordinate over 385 wreath ceremonies in veteran cemeteries - all at the same time as the main wreath-laying ceremony in Arlington.

This year, East Hartford will join the celebration, one of 25 planned in cemeteries in the state.

At noon December 13, the Orford Parish-Pitkin chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the VFW Post, will place 7 wreaths at the veterans' monument at Hillside Cemetery on Hillside Avenue.

The first six wreaths will honor the six branches of the Armed Forces: Army Navy Air Force Marines Coast Guard and Merchant Marines. The seventh wreath is to pay respect to POW/MIA servicemen and women.

"We are doing it to support our veterans," said DAR chapter member Caroline Taylor of South Windsor. She and South Windsor's Mary Therese Kyc came to Hillside Cemetery Tuesday and discussed their plans for the event.

"The Daughters of the American Revolution have always been true to our mission," she related, "to support all patriotic endeavors. This ceremony is a great opportunity."

The event begins with the convoy of wreaths that will start from Maine early next week on its way to Virginia. According to the group's posted itinerary, more than 30 tractor trailers full of wreaths and hundreds of cars and motorcycles will travel the 750 miles between Maine and Virginia.

That also makes the Wreath Escort to Arlington the longest veterans parade in the world, organizers claim. The big procession follows Route 1, stopping at more than 20 locations. It will grow in size along the way as thousands of volunteers and supporters are expected to join in the escort. The group then will reach the gates of Arlington Cemetery the morning of December 13 where thousands more volunteers will be waiting to help set up all the wreaths on the rows and rows of marble and granite headstones in the many acres of the nation's most hallowed grounds.

Taylor said that the Hillside event is a good opportunity to support the message of patriotism and is open to the public. "Any resident who would like to attend is invited," she noted.

Peg Byrnes is the chairperson of the town's Patriotic Commission.

"It's a wonderful idea" she commented. "East Hartford has a long tradition of patriotism and so many of our heroes are in that cemetery."