This Veterans Day, learn how Wreaths Across America helps to remember, honor and teach about fallen miliary service members.
Today, as we honor the nation’s veterans for Veterans Day, we’re calling attention to a nonprofit organization that’s making a difference with their powerful mission. Wreaths Across America was founded to remember and honor fallen military service members during the holiday season by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations throughout the United States.
The nonprofit was started in 2007 by Morrill Worcester—a Maine businessman who founded Worcester Wreath Company—with the mission to “Remember, Honor and Teach.”
WREATH-LAYING CEREMONY
Powered by national volunteers and a small team of employees, Wreaths Across America gathers each December to pay homage to fallen veterans. The handmade wreaths are escorted in a convoy dubbed “The Veterans Honor Parade,” which travels along the east coast in early December. Throughout the multi-mile trip, the wreath convoy stops at schools, monuments, veterans’ homes and local communities to share their mission.
Recognizing the powerful impact of Wreaths Across America, the United States Congress unanimously voted to hold “National Wreaths Across America Day” annually, on the second or third Saturday of December. If you want to get involved, the nonprofit organization offers wreath sponsorships where you can fund one of the hand-crafted abd all-American balsam wreaths with a hand-tied red velvet bow.
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MOBILE EDUCATION EXHIBIT 2023 NATIONAL TOUR
In addition to “The Veterans Honor Parade,” Wreaths Across America will have a Mobile Education Exhibit tour, what they call an interactive museum on wheels.
“The goal of the Wreaths Across America Mobile Education Exhibit is to bring communities together and teach about the organization’s mission,” Trish Gardner, Manager of Mobile Education Exhibit for Wreaths Across America says. “The exhibit serves as a mobile museum, educating visitors about the service and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes as well as to serve as an official ‘welcome home’ station for our nation’s Vietnam Veterans.”
The national tour will kick off in California in January, and then head to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Maine.
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“The goal of the Wreaths Across America Mobile Education Exhibit is to bring communities together and teach about the organization’s mission,” Trish Gardner, Manager of Mobile Education Exhibit for Wreaths Across America says. “The exhibit serves as a mobile museum, educating visitors about the service and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes as well as to serve as an official ‘welcome home’ station for our nation’s Vietnam Veterans.”
FREE TEACH PROGRAM CURRICULUM FOR EDUCATORS
An important part of the Wreaths Across America mission is to teach, and they are making it simple with a new TEACH program that launched earlier this year. The program was put together by retired educator and Gold Star Mother Cindy Tatum, which teaches the next generation all about Veterans Day, character development and the value of freedom.
“As a volunteer, founding family member, and mother of six kids and grandmother to nine, whose lives have been greatly impacted by the opportunity to meet so many in the military community, I know that the teaching aspect of our mission is the most important,” Karen Worcester, Executive Director of Wreaths Across America says. “Finally, this long-standing desire to develop a more robust education program took a giant step forward with the launch of this expanded program. I am thrilled to see that so many educators are already seeing value in the materials and hope that more will have the opportunity to utilize these important lesson plans in their classrooms.”
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