Since 1992
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By Bill Van Tassel
Morrill Worcester won a trip to Washington D.C. when he was 12, and a visit to Arlington National Cemetery during that trip had a profound lasting effect on the 12-year-old from Harrington.
Morrill, whose family has operated a wreath-making company in Columbia Falls, in Washington County, since 1971, would never forget his experience at Arlington.
Near the end of the 1992 Christmas season, Worcester Wreath Company had a large surplus of wreaths. What to do? His memory of all those graves at Arlington resurfaced. He had an idea: Fill a truck with the extra wreaths and send it to Washington to decorate the gravestones for Christmas.
With the help of Sen. Olympia Snowe, Worcester got permission to place the wreaths in one of Arlington’s less visited older sections, section 27 of the cemetery, which has more than 400,000 graves dating back to the Civil War on 624 acres.
Morrill, his wife, Karen, and the rest of the family felt it was a wonderful opportunity to honor veterans.
Now in its 26th year, Wreaths Across America carries thousands of wreath to cover 250,000 gravestones around the country.
In addition to the Washington event on Dec. 16, there are hundreds of other Worcester Wreaths that will be placed at about 1,200 sites in the U.S. and at some international locations. The massive project has its own administrative staff of next-generation family members and others, as well as hundreds of volunteers.
Volunteer Jim Keenan, of Farmingdale, spoke recently about the program one day while he was participating in a Kennebec County veterans honor guard and the Maine veterans cemetery in Augusta. Keenan made his first wreath-laying trip to Arlington in 2013.
He says the typical convoy includes about a dozen 18-wheelers, a bus of volunteers and a special bus for Gold Star families and takes eight days.
“You know, we didn’t have to pay for hardly one meal,” he said. Local law enforcement and fire departments along the way help provide support. “It’s true that firemen are great cooks,” he joked.
He said on the New Jersey Turnpike, the state police temporarily close each toll exit for the convoy, a procession that can be nearly a mile in length. “The police love what we’re doing, and I think they also kind of like racing their vehicles to the next toll area to shut that one down for a few minutes.”
Special ceremonies that include a moment of silence and the reading of the names on the gravestones are held at every Wreaths Across America site.
One of Maine’s many ceremonies will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, at Oak Grove/St. Joseph Cemetery in Gardiner. With the support of local businesses and organizations, Keenan said volunteers hope to place more than 400 wreaths on the graves of veterans.
To participate in the Gardiner event, call Keenan at 207-582-6530. For information on events, or to add one, visit wreathsacrossamerica.org.
PHOTO CAPTION: Arlington National Cemetery gravestones decorated by Wreaths Across America, a program that has been going on since 1992, started by the Worcester Wreath Company in Columbia Falls. The event has spread to 1,200 sites across the U.S. and internationally. (Wreaths Across America photo)
