Each year, on the second or third Saturday of December, thousands of volunteers gather at local and national cemeteries to remind people to remember, honor, and teach. These volunteers spend the day placing wreaths across the graves of the many individuals that have fought for our country. Thanks to local organizations like the Civil Air Patrol and the Women’s Civic Club of Carmichaels, Wreaths Across America is able to spread its mission of remembrance into Greene County.
Wreaths Across America started quietly when Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine and owned by Morrill Worcester, had a surplus of wreaths towards the end of the 1992 holiday season. Morrill remembering a trip to Arlington National Cemetery during his boyhood, made arrangements, along with Main Senator Olympia Snowe, to have the wreaths placed in an older section of Arlington.
Other organizations became involved in the process – James Proust, owner of Blue Bird Ranch, Inc. – a trucking company – provided transportation and volunteers from the local American Legion and VFW decorated the wreaths with bows. Members of the Maine State Society of Washington, D.C. organized the wreath-laying and special ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
This continued until 2005 when a picture of Arlington, covered in wreaths, brought national attention and requests began to pour in from people that wanted to help with Arlington; other requests came to recreate the ceremonies at local cemeteries. In 2006, civic organizations like the Civil Air Patrol held simultaneous wreath-laying ceremonies at over 150 locations. This year also began the annual Veterans Honor Parade that travels the east coast in December.
Each year the number of local cemeteries and the number of volunteers at Arlington grew. In response, the non-profit Wreaths Across America was formed expand and support the national effort. By 2014, over 1000 locations participated, with more than 700,000 wreaths placed. Three of those locations are here in Greene County: Laurel Point Cemetery in Carmichaels, Green Mount Cemetery in Waynesburg, and Rosemont Cemetery in Rogersville.
For the past 9 years, the Women’s Civic Club of Carmichaels has been in charge of the event at Laurel Point Cemetery. The Civic Club, along with American Legion Post 400 and the Carmichaels VFW Post 3491, Scout Pack and Troop 1262 and other volunteers will place the wreaths on December 14th, after a noon remembrance ceremony. The ceremony will feature speaker Mike Belding and feature the music of the American Legion Post 400 Band, under the direction of Frank Ricco.
Andrea Semenoff, president of the Women’s Civic Club, read a local news article about the ceremony at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Bridgeville, PA. She brought it up at the club’s next meeting and the club decided to adopt the Laurel Point Cemetery in Carmichaels. They filed the paperwork and got organized, but because they started so late in their initial year, they weren’t able to get as much support and sponsorship as they hoped. “It was a nice thing to do,” shares Andrea.” It just feels so appropriate to honor the veterans during the holidays.”
For their second year, the club made it a priority to cover the veteran’s graves in the older portion of the cemetery, with the reasoning that those graves are more likely to be forgotten. By the third year, they were able to cover all the veteran’s graves in the cemetery and have continued to do so ever since.
Last year, 339 wreaths were placed on the graves of veterans of Laurel Point and this year’s goal is to place wreaths on the graves of the 342 veterans who are buried there. “We have some very generous sponsors,” says Andrea. “A lot of people have loved ones buried in Laurel Point and will sponsor wreaths for their gravesites. And the local businesses are very generous. It’s one of the best things about living in a small community.”
Captain Dave Shaw, founder of Greene County Composite Squadron 606, has helped with Wreaths Across America since it started at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Bridgeville, PA. Because of his hobby as a World War II Living Historian, the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies asked him to arrange for WWII vehicles and living historians to be present during the wreath laying ceremony, currently supported by Washington County Composite Squadron 601.
At the time of Squadron 606’s charter, only the Laurel Point Cemetery in Carmichaels was participating in the program. Squadron 606’s vision is to see the wreaths placed on all the graves of fallen veterans in Greene County, so they started by placing fifty wreaths at Green Mount Cemetery in Waynesburg in 2017. A ceremony was held outside the Greene County Courthouse that year, and several folks, including the Waynesburg Boy Scout Troops, helped place wreaths.
In 2018, they continued their work at Green Mount and placed 150 wreaths on graves. They also moved the ceremony to the Waynesburg VFW Post 4793. Because of the large number of wreaths, they were delivered by tractor trailer. The delivery was given an escort from Carmichaels to the Waynesburg Post VFW 4793 and was attended by Cumberland / Carmichaels Volunteer Fire Dept., Pennsylvania State Police, Cumberland TWP Police Dept., Waynesburg Borough Police Dept., Greene County Sheriff’s Dept., Greene County Regional Police Dept., and EMS South West Ambulance Service. The Squadron also treated the truck driver, Justin Schott, to a meal at a local restaurant before he continued on his way to his next delivery.
Justin is an independent truck driver and is contracted through Carey Moving and Storage of Asheville, NC. He’s been delivering wreaths on the east coast since 2015. Each year, Justin heads north to Columbia Falls, Maine, where they load his and all the other trucks with boxes of wreaths. Then Justin begins his assigned route. The route usually takes him about a week to complete. Justin and the other truck drivers that participate are volunteers; the trip is paid for out of their own pockets, including fuel, tolls, food, repairs and more.
This year, the Squadron added Rosemont Cemetery in Rogersville to their efforts. The goal for wreath sponsorship is 293 for Green Mount Cemetery and 338 for Rosemont Cemetery. Boy Scout Troops 1280 and 9280 are raising funds to purchase wreaths and assisting with the wreath laying ceremony. Wreaths can also be purchased at the Waynesburg VFW and can be picked up and placed at any cemetery you would like. The Squadron will continue to expand their efforts until all Greene County cemeteries are covered.