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Wreaths Across America continues growth, despite repeated poor weather

By Dave Zuchowski, For The Greene County Messenger 4 min read
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On Dec. 14, a chilly and wet afternoon, about 60 people turned out for the annual Wreaths Across American ceremony at Laurel Point Cemetery in Carmichaels.

Now in its ninth year at Laurel Point, the annual event honors the veterans buried in the cemetery and has continued to see community support. Andrea Semenoff, president of the Carmichaels Women’s Civic Club, the organization that conducts the ceremony, said during eight of the past nine years the Civic Club has experienced bad weather conditions – rain, sleet, bitter cold or a combination of all three. Even so, people have turned out to make the ceremony a success.

Prior to the noon start of this year’s program themed “Everyone Plays A Part,” Carmichaels American Legion Post 400 Band, led by Frank Ricco, who also served as master of ceremonies, played a series of military music selections. The ceremony took place simultaneously with others at 1,600 locations across 50 states, at sea and abroad.

At Laurel Point, Kaylee Cutwright sang the National Anthem followed by Cub Scout Pack 1262 singing “God Bless America” just before the formal wreath laying ceremony. Guest speaker Col.

“We have Veterans Day in the fall and Memorial Day in the spring, but our service members sacrifice their time and safety every single day of the year to preserve our freedoms,” said Michael Belding, US Marine Corps (retired) and Greene County Commissioner Elect. “In many homes, there is an empty seat for one who is serving or one who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. There is no better time to express our appreciation than during the holiday season.”

Of those who placed a wreath, Susan Lawrence of Carmichaels has seven family members buried in Laurel Point who were veterans. Her father, John H. Gideon, was an Army Staff Sergeant who fought in World War Two and Korea. Born and raised in Carmichaels, he owned Gideon’s Garage in the town of his birth. Lawrence was his only child.

Lawrence and her husband, John, worked the sound system at the ceremony as a replacement for her son Ben, radio announcer for WKHJ in Oakland, Maryland, who was working on a food drive project that day.

“This event is one of the best things we do for our veterans,” John Lawrence said.

Susan Martin of Rices Landing is proud of the fact that she attended all but one of the Wreaths Across America ceremonies at Laurel Point. The one she missed was in 2015 when her son Paul got married.

“It was 70-degrees that day, but every other one I attended was on a cold day.” she said.

Martin’s mother, Rosa Lesako, served in the British army in World War Two, and met her future husband, Paul, at a United Service Organization near London.

“Mom was on the first flight that left London after the war,” she said. “She and Dad married in 1946 and lived in Brownsville until they moved to Carmichaels in 1960, where dad ran a funeral home.”

The Lesako family donated money for the erection of the Veterans monument in Laurel Point Cemetery, the focal point where seven additional wreaths, one for each branch of the armed services are laid. The additional wreaths honor veterans of the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine and one for POW/MIAs. Martin’s brother designed the monument, and the entire family collaborated on coming up with the inscriptions written on the monument’s sides.

At the first Wreaths Across America ceremony in 2011, only ten wreaths plus the seven ceremonial wreaths were laid on the graves of the cemetery veterans.

“We started planning the event too late to get the necessary sponsors, and we laid the wreaths we had at random on veterans’ graves in the oldest part of the cemetery,” Semenoff said.

In 2015, the ceremony included 324 wreaths, enough for all the veterans buried in the cemetery. This year, the number of wreaths grew to 342 to include veterans who had died in the past 4 years.

“Any wreaths that are left over are placed on the military monuments in surrounding towns like Nemacolin, Crucible, Rices Landing, Mather, Waynesburg and Clarksville,” Semenoff said.

“Your presence here today is a tribute to those who serve and their families,” said commissioner-elect Belding at the conclusion of the ceremony. “It is a way to say we remember we are grateful and we thank you.”

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