Preparations underway at cemeteries for wreath laying events
Preparations were underway earlier this week for Saturday’s Wreaths Across America Service ceremony, in which more than 1,100 wreaths will be placed at the graves of veterans laid to rest at the city of Yuma’s Desert Lawn Memorial Cemetery and the Sunset Vista Cemetery in the Foothills.
On Wednesday, volunteers from the Yuma chapter of the Patriot Guard Riders, VFW Post 1763, the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association were putting up 800 white crosses, which the wreaths will be hung from, at the headstones of veterans buried at Desert Lawn.
Several students from the Future Farmers of America club at Gila Ridge High School also volunteered, using it to fulfill one of their community service projects. Another 300 crosses will be placed at Sunset Vista, but staff at that cemetery will be doing it.
“Because it is a memorial park, all of the grave markers are flat on the ground,” said Apryl Brand, who is chairing the committee for the Rio Colorado Republican Women’s Club, which has put on the program the past three years. “The crosses will hold the wreaths off the ground.”
A wreath-laying ceremony, including the playing of bagpipes, will take place at the city’s Desert Lawn Memorial Cemetery at 10 a.m. on Dec. 15. Brand said a similar ceremony is also being planned for Sunset Vista Cemetery at noon on the same day. The public is invited to attend the ceremonies.
The ceremony at Desert Lawn will coincide with wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as more than 1,400 additional locations in all 50 U.S. states, at sea and abroad.
There will be a short service at each of the ceremonies as well. Father John Friel of St. John Neumann Catholic Church, who was a chaplain in the U.S Navy for 25 years, will officiate at Desert Lawn. Chaplain Brian Kimball of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma will preside over the ceremony at Sunset Vista.
For the first time this year, Wreaths Across America was given permission by the French government to place 9,387 wreaths on the headstones of all U.S. service members laid to rest at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, located in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.The cemetery is one of 14 permanent American World War II military cemeteries on foreign soil.
Brand said this is the third year her club has organized the remembrance ceremonies and that they have been able to raise enough money each year to buy twice as many wreaths than the previous year. Last year the club bought 592 and 323 the previous year.
She went on to say that there are an estimated 3,000 veterans buried in Yuma County and her goal is to raise more money than each previous year, so that a fewer number of veterans’ graves go uncovered this year.
She added that there were no words to express her gratitude to the community for the donations she has received.
Wreaths Across America’s mission is to remember the fallen, honor those that served, and teach the next generation the value of Freedom.
James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@ yumasun.com or 539-6854.