More than 5,000 wreaths were placed by Wreaths Across America in December 2019 at Marion National Cemetery in Grant County.
GREENFIELD — Wreaths Across America returns this year for its annual effort to honor deceased veterans during the holiday season, and Gravel Lawn Cemetery in Fortville is expected to be decked in wreaths.
Misty Rambis, a local woman who organizes Gravel Lawn’s Wreaths Across America effort each year, said she’s excited to have a more public event this year. The program was a low-profile one in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit organization, seeks to remember and honor veterans every year during December by holding coordinated wreath-laying ceremonies at the same time at Arlington National Cemetery and thousands of other burial sites. The event this year will be held on Dec. 18.
At any cemetery where Wreaths Across America has a local coordinator, people can visit wreathsacrossamerica.org to sponsor one or more wreaths. Costs start at $15 to sponsor one wreath.
“People can go online at Wreaths Across America and look up Gravel Lawn,” Rambis said.
If a local cemetery does not currently participate in the program, people can also volunteer to become a coordinator for that location through the website.
In 2019, 2.2 million wreaths were placed in total across the country, 254,000 of them at Arlington National Cemetery.
“Wreaths Across America does not ‘decorate’ headstones.” the organization says on its website. “We are honoring all veterans and active military members by placing live wreaths on the headstones of veterans. The fresh evergreens have been used for centuries as a symbol recognizing honor and as a living tribute renewed annually. We want people to see the tradition as a living memorial to veterans and their families.”
Sue Ferrell found out about the Wreaths Across America program when she and her husband visited Marion National Cemetery to place a Christmas wreath on the grave of their son, a veteran who had recently died. They found that Wreaths Across America had already left one.
Since then, the Ferrells have bought numerous wreaths to place on graves at both Marion National Cemetery and Gravel Lawn, where other veterans in their families are buried. Ancestors of Ferrell’s husband, several generations back, donated the land that became Gravel Lawn Cemetery. They’d like to see every grave have a wreath, including those dating back to the Civil War.
“I think Wreaths Across America is just a great organization,” Ferrell said. “…It’s an honor, it’s a privilege to be able to do it.”
Gravel Lawn business manager Linda Sue Rhoades said the cemetery, formally established in 1915, has 817 veterans buried on its land.
Rhoades said she appreciates seeing the presence of Wreaths Across America every year during the Christmas season.
“We’ve been really thrilled that they’ve brought it here to little towns like Fortville,” she said.
Ferrell said the Wreaths Across America program not only honors veterans who have died, but also serves as a symbol of recognition for the family members who are visiting their graves. She said many people don’t think of the pain that both veterans and their loved ones go through after their military service has concluded.
“Their families that are left still suffer those consequences every day,” she said.