Wreaths Across America: sponsors needed to honor fallen soldiers, veterans
SAN DIEGO — The deadline is quickly approaching to sponsor a wreath for fallen soldiers and veterans who have died.
It’s part of the Wreaths Across America program, which will hold their ceremony in December.
The organization is also looking for volunteers to lay the wreaths on the headstones after the ceremony and have people attend the event.
“The wreath really is a visual symbol that someone visited the headstone,” said Brenda Kaesler, Wreaths Across America Location Coordinator for Miramar National Cemetery.
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The organization needs sponsors for their wreaths, from individuals and businesses, for National Wreaths Across America Day on Dec. 16.
It is a day set aside to honor fallen soldiers and veterans, by having volunteers place wreaths on their graves and saying their name aloud.
Volunteers will place stones on Jewish veterans and fallen soldiers’ headstones.
Kaesler said, “we American’s don’t think they just did a job for us, we know what they did for us. And they need to know that they are so important, that at least once a year, somebody will say their name,= out loud when they are not here anymore.”
Kaesler said her son is resting at Miramar. He was in the 84th Airborne Division stationed at Fort Bragg. Kasler said he did a tour in Iraq and Afghanistan with the army.
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“Our biggest fear is that they won’t be remembered. So for me to know that when I am not able to come and place that wreath on Jeff’s headstone, that somebody else will. I hold that very dear to my heart,” Kaesler said.
The initiative started in 1992, when a wreathmaker took his leftover 5,000 wreaths and placed them on the oldest headstones at Arlington National Cemetery. Kaesler said the maker knew those headstones were less visited.
The placements went on for eight years before someone took a picture of it that went viral. That then started the Wreaths Across America organization in 2007.
Now more than 4,000 national cemeteries across the country are participating. This includes 11 in San Diego County such as Miramar and Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
“So every year, we want to come and make sure that those veterans are remembered and their spirits live on,” Kaesler said.
The deadline to sponsor is Dec. 6. Click here to sponsor a a wreath.
It costs $17 to sponsor one wreath; however, someone or a business can sponsor several more. Donors must select which national cemetery they want their wreath to appear at.
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