Volunteers honor veterans at Greenwood Cemetery through Wreaths Across America
PETOSKEY — Dozens of volunteers fanned out throughout Greenwood Cemetery in Petoskey on a drizzly Saturday with bunches of wreaths in their arms.
They walked through the cemetery, some with their Boy Scout troop, some with family members, and some alone, searching for the markers that indicated a grave belongs to a veteran. For each of these graves, volunteers placed a wreath and read the veteran’s name out loud.
More: Volunteers take part in Wreaths Across America at Greenwood Cemetery
Greenwood Cemetery has been taking part in the nationwide Wreaths Across America program since 2013.
“The first year we did it, we had 740 wreaths,” said Karl Crawford, wreath coordinator and cemetery superintendent, on Saturday. “This year we’re over 1,700.”
The initiative serves as a way to honor veterans by placing a wreath at their grave that will stay up through the winter. In the Jewish section of the cemetery, volunteers placed American flags instead of wreaths.
There are more than 1,700 veterans interred at Greenwood Cemetery, ranging from the Mexican-American War and Civil War up until the Gulf Wars.
Crawford said the day’s activities are designed not only to honor the veterans buried in the cemetery but “we also honor our veterans today that are here that are still with us, and we thank you and we honor you.”
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Many local veterans took part in Saturday’s events. During the opening ceremony, a veteran representing each branch of service and POW/MIA received a wreath to place before their corresponding flag.
Scott Schwander, who served with the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Department, was the guest speaker at the ceremony. After a PTSD diagnosis and his retirement, Schwander began volunteering in local cemeteries.
“Looking to the future, I turned to the past to find a method of healing that did not come from a prescription bottle or alcohol,” he said. “This led to the restoration of military and historical headstones in cemeteries, and I became a cemetery volunteer.”
Schwander has restored over 1,450 memorials. In 2023 alone, he has restored 406 headstones in the Traverse City area.
Schwander described Greenwood Cemetery as “one of God’s golden acres” and said it is a place where “you will find history, stories, both told and untold and still undiscovered.”
For more information about Greenwood Cemetery, visit gwood.us.
— Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@petoskeynews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Volunteers honor veterans at Greenwood Cemetery through Wreaths Across America
