Opinion
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Wreaths Across America grows
Is there any holiday that brings back so many memories as Christmas? It began with the birth of a baby but over the years more customs were added. Christmas trees, candles, wreaths, cards, carols, Santa Claus and gifts became accepted traditions.
The nation’s capitol celebrates the season with special Christmas trees inside and outside the White House. In New York City a huge tree is decorated and lit at Rockefeller Center. A towering spruce from Nova Scotia arrives annually to be the Boston Common Christmas tree. It is a thank you to Bostonians who rushed north to help after a terrible accident in Halifax Harbor in 1917 which killed 2,000 and injured 9,000.
My first memory of a Christmas tree was one glowing with candles carefully lit with a match. I was warned to just look and not go near the tree for the short time they burned. Later in my childhood, when radio was king of communications, we gathered around to hear Kate Smith sing Silent Night each Christmas Eve. At church, children received an orange and a sweet as a Christmas gift. Those deeply ingrained memories were stirred when I saw a tiny item in Yankee magazine in 1998 that told of a wreath company in Maine that had been making and sending 5,000 wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery since 1993. This was accomplished through volunteer efforts. It was their way of recognizing and honoring hero veterans.
I knew there had to be much more to this story and I turned to the telephone for help. When I gave directory assistance the name of the wreath company in Harrington, ME, she found nothing. The Bluebird Trucking Company there transports the wreaths to Arlington but she did not find that name. However ,she said there was a Bluebird Ranch and gave me the number. The man there gave me the number of the wreath company and I reached the secretary who said the man responsible for the Arlington Project, Morrill Worcester, was in an all-day meeting. However ,she promised to send me information and when that arrived there was another name and number to contact.
The call to Hugh Dwelley filled in the rest of story. He is a member of the Maine Society of Washington, D.C. (they call themselves “displaced Mainers”) and he organizes and coordinates the volunteers. They meet the truck carrying the 5,000 wreaths and then decorate the graves in the section of the cemetery chosen by the cemetery staff. On December 16, 1998 this column told the entire heartwarming story.,
Last Saturday an editorial in the Chattanooga paper added more. A photo of the wreaths at Arlington appeared on the Internet and in newspapers across the country in 2005. By the following year, Wreaths Across America became a national tradition following Morrill Worcester’s selfless gesture for so many years. A man who preferred to remain anonymous. Since the growth of the project, his Worcester Wreath Co. donates 25,000 wreaths. Many businesses like Walmart and community groups underwrite the cost of additional wreaths. Trucking companies volunteer their services to carry the wreaths to their destination. In 2008, the U.S. Senate recognized the importance of this project by designating the second Saturday in December as National Wreaths Across America Day,. a day for the nation to “Remember the fallen; Honor those who serve; and Teach our children the value of freedom.”
This year, our grandson retired after 20-plus years in the Navy. His special forces team volunteered to go to Afghanistan after the attack and were among the first on the ground there in October 2001. In 2006, he ended his Christmas letter with these words. “Please keep all of the Sailors, Soldiers, Marines and Airmen in your prayers through this holiday season and the rest of the war. They need your support! Remember that without their sacrifice in the past, present and future the freedom and relative safety we typically take for granted daily would not be possible.”
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