Christmas Honors seeks volunteers at Fort Smith National Cemetery

FORT SMITH — A local program is asking for the public’s help in preparing to honor veterans in a ceremony Saturday, which includes displaying roughly 17,000 wreaths at Fort Smith National Cemetery.

Christmas Honors organizer Philip Merry said the wreath and bow workshop will take place Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Fort Smith Convention Center, 55 S. Seventh St. He said the event needs volunteers with pickups and trailers to take the wreaths to the cemetery, 522 Garland Ave., and place them in the staging area for the ceremony.

Merry said the Christmas Honors event starts at 8 a.m. Saturday for families with a veteran buried at the cemetery and asked other attendees to wait as families spend a private moment laying wreaths for their loved ones. He said a service will start at 11 a.m. with keynote speaker Police Chief Danny Baker, and afterward volunteers will place the remaining wreaths.

“The process, because there’s so many people there wanting to help, to decorate the entire facility takes three minutes and 45 seconds,” Merry said. “It’s amazing.”

Merry has previously stated one wreath should be placed per headstone unless both spouses are veterans and they should lean against the headstone at roughly a 60-degree angle. Volunteer teams called Wreath Patrol then tour the cemetery each morning to fix any wreaths that have fallen.

Merry said the nonprofit group Christmas Honors started in 2009 when he went to the cemetery to pay respects to his wife’s grandfather. He said the view reminded him of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

When Merry looked up photos of the site at Christmas, he saw all the graves decorated through Wreaths Across America at Arlington, compared to thousands of graves at Fort Smith that weren’t decorated.

The cemetery agreed Merry could put up wreaths for

the 12,000 veterans buried there at the time, and the Walmart Supercenter on Zero Street sold Merry supplies at $4 per wreath, and 95 cents per big, red bow. Merry explained Christmas Honors is separate from Wreaths Across America at Arlington. He said Wreaths Across America uses live greenery replaced each year, whereas Christmas Honors’ wreaths can last for roughly five years, only needing new bows due to water damage.

Merry said the nonprofit group typically needs volunteers to help collect the wreaths and dry them before they’re stored until the next year.

Cleanup will be at the cemetery and the Fort Smith Convention Center on Jan. 5.

Merry said Christmas Honors believes there’s no way to adequately thank veterans for all they’ve done, but they can help ensure they’re never forgotten.

“In 15 years I’ve had occasion to visit with, interview and learn a lot from veterans,” Merry said. “The prevailing theme is so consistent. Not a one of them was ever afraid of dying. They just didn’t want to be forgotten. So Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley, it’s very nice to know we live in an area where the veterans will never be forgotten. We’re proud to live here and to help them.”

Visit www.ChristmasHonors.org for links to donate or volunteer for Christmas Honors.

(File Photo/River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton) Tyler McCann (right) and Emilie Gillespie, students at Fort Smith Southside High School, gather and store wreaths Jan. 5 at the Fort Smith Convention Center in downtown Fort Smith. McCann and Gillespie were among dozens of volunteers who helped pick up wreaths from the gravestones at the nearby Fort Smith National Cemetery and store them as part of the annual Christmas Honors event, which returns next week with the unboxing and placing of wreaths at each of the more than 16,000 gravestones at the cemetery. Visit rivervalleydemocratgazette.com/photo for today’s photo gallery.