Wreaths Across America
CARMICHAELS — In the midst of the busy Christmas season, members of the Carmichaels Women’s Civic Club (CWCC) are taking time out to honor deceased veterans interred in Laurel Point Cemetery, just off Market Street in Carmichaels.
Participating in the Wreaths Across America program for the sixth consecutive year, the CWCC will stage a special wreath-laying ceremony that starts at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, Dec. 17, with military musical selections performed by the American Legion Post 400 Band, under the direction of Frank Ricco, who will also serve as the event’s emcee.
Paige Armstrong, 18, will sing the “Star Spangled Banner,” and her sister, Peyton, 13, will lead the recitation of the “Pledge of Allegiance.” Washington attorney Joseph Brodak, who grew up in Carmichaels and served in the U.S. Coast Guard, will be the main speaker.
“Each year, we send our speaker information about the Wreaths Across America and the program’s mission to ‘Remember, Honor and Teach,'” said Andrea Semenoff, CWCC president. “Because we don’t know what the weather will be like, we also ask them to keep their remarks to a minimum.”
Since 1992, Wreaths Across America (WAA) founder Morrill Worcester has asked volunteers placing remembrance wreaths to take time to read the name on the headstone aloud.
During the escort of wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery last December, WAA Executive Director Karen Worcester stated, “A person dies twice: the first time, when they stop breathing, and a second time, when someone says their name for the last time.”
It is with this in mind that this year’s theme for National Wreaths Across America Day is “Say Their Names.”
“At the ceremony, our emcee is going to ask that each person laying a wreath say the name of the deceased veteran at his or her tombstone,” Semenoff said.
Just one of more than 1,100 cemeteries across the nation participating in Wreaths Across America Day, Laurel Point will host the American Legion Post 400 Honor Guard and the Carmichaels VFW Post 3491, both of which will participate in the wreath laying ceremony.
“Everyone attending the ceremony is invited to help us lay a total of 330 wreaths on the graves of our veterans, some of which fought back as early as the War of 1812,” Semenoff said. “This year, Cub Scouts from Carmichaels Troop #1262 led by Joe Krampy will help during the wreath laying ceremony.”
Each of the wreaths cost $15, and the CWCC raises the money needed for the ceremony through donations made by its members, businesses, private individuals, churches and civic organizations. The wreaths arrive in Carmichaels one or two days before the event by 18-wheeler.
Five or six volunteers unload the boxes of wreaths at the town square and store them temporarily in the borough building or First Federal Bank, where Kim Bartley, CWCC member in charge of donations, works.Wreaths Across America is sending seven additional wreaths, one for each branch of the armed services (the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine) and one for the nation’s POW/MIAs. The wreaths are identical to the ones that will be laid on the veterans’ graves, except for the fact that Bartley will attach both an American and an armed services flag to each before it is ceremoniously laid at the cemetery’s veterans memorial by a representative of each of the armed services.
In 2015, the program laid close to 900,000 wreaths on the graves of veterans at over 1,100 locations across the United States.
“Each year, our audience gets bigger and bigger at the ceremony,” Semenoff said. “Last year, we had close to 100 attendees. This year we hope to have even more.”