Screven County's Wreaths Across America campaign is underway. Here's what to know

Miguel Legoas, Augusta Chronicle
·2 min read
Caroline Bazemore, 6, places a wreath at the grave of a World War II service member buried in Screven County as part of Wreaths Across America in 2020.
Caroline Bazemore, 6, places a wreath at the grave of a World War II service member buried in Screven County as part of Wreaths Across America in 2020.

Screven County's Wreaths Across America team is back in action, and hopes to do better than ever this year.

Location coordinator Lisa Guidos announced this year's campaign launch via email on Sunday, Aug. 21. She leads the local effort with Scotty Scott, a U.S. Air Force veteran, and they look to put a Christmas wreath on every veteran's grave.

They partner with volunteers and organizations like Screven County History Buffs, Sylvania Junior Woman's Club and Daughters of the American Revolution, in part, to raise funds in order to purchase the wreaths. But one of the other big parts of the initiative is locating more graves to put wreaths on. As a passionate genealogist, this is really important to Scott.

"With both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and with the American Legion, one of our charters is that we are supposed to try to find unmarked veteran graves and get markers for them," Scott said in June. "Now that I have people all over the county… doing that, I'm getting a lot of information."

"It's a lot of leg work," Guidos said. "We want to make sure we don't miss anyone, so we're constantly going out to cemeteries and looking around and asking questions and trying to get more people involved."

Screven County's  wreath campaign was one of the most successful in Georgia last year. Sponsoring approximately 1,388 wreaths, Screven County ranked fifth among Georgia's 205 registered teams. It also outperformed around 97% of all U.S. teams. Of the 5,372 registered teams nationwide, Screven County ranked 182, and the local team hopes to do even better this year. They believe they can do so by recruiting more volunteers.

Guidos said they will also be boosting their wreath recycling efforts once the holidays are over. Volunteers remove the wreaths so their metal, ribbons and branches can be recycled or composted, according to Wreaths Across America.

There are over 80 churches and cemeteries registered for the campaign in Screven County and the surrounding area. Those interested in hear more about the locations and getting involved with the campaign can call Scott at (352) 553-3568 and Guidos at (310) 561-6869 or go to the "Screven County Wreaths Across America" Facebook group.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Screven County's Wreaths Across America campaign is underway