Cemetery seeks help putting wreaths on 20,000 graves

Their service was the greatest gift to the nation.

When better than the Christmas season to give back to them?

On Dec. 17, wreaths will be placed on as many as 800 graves at Andersonville National Cemetery in southeast Georgia. The cemetery, part of the National Park Service’s Andersonville National Historic Site, will take part in the “Wreaths Across America” program. It’s a national program that encourages individuals, community groups, and families to sponsor wreaths for placement in national cemeteries throughout the United States. These wreaths may be placed on specific graves, or left undesignated to place on one of thousands of unvisited graves.

Andersonville got its start in 1864 as a trench burial site of prisoners who died in the nearby military prison during the Civil War. It later was established as a national cemetery to provide a permanent place of honor for those who died in military service to our country. One of 14 national cemeteries administered by the NPS, it is also the only national park to serve as a memorial to all Amercian prisoners of war. There are now more than 20,000 grave sites at the cemetery, which remains open and active for burials.

Many of the older or more anonymous grave sites are unlikely to get visitors. That’s a reason the 500 to 800 wreath donations Andersonville gets each year are so important. Indeed, “our goal is to ensure that each of the more than 20,000 gravesites in the cemetery is decorated with a wreath at least once,” the NPS said in announcing this year’s Wreath Across America effort.

To purchase and send a wreath, go to www.wreathsacrossamerica.org and search for Andersonville National Cemetery.

Or, if you want to say thank you in a more direct and hands-on way, you can purchase a wreath from a local florist or home improvement store and place it at the cemetery throughout December. In addition, Andersonville will host a brief ceremony honoring America’s armed forces beginning at noon on Dec. 17. The event is open to the public and attendees are encouraged to bring a wreath for placement afterwards.

Located 10 miles from Oglethorpe and Americus on Georgia Highway 49, Andersonville National Historic Site also includes the National Prisoner of War Museum as well as the site of Camp Sumter, the historic Civil War Prison. For information, call 229 9240343, or visit www.nps.gov.