Honoring veterans at Christmas

With the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor rapidly approaching (and 492 World War II veterans are dying every day), one way to honor our deceased veterans is to participate in Wreaths Across America (WAA). WAA is an annual event during the Christmas season where wreaths are placed on graves of U.S. veterans. (For more information, go to www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.)

Charles County Right to Life is working again with WAA this year to place wreaths at the graves of veterans buried at the Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery.

The wreath laying ceremony starts at noon on Saturday, Dec. 17, at the main building near the entrance. It includes a color guard, short speech and the laying of seven wreaths to honor the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine and POW/MIA. The remaining wreaths are then handed out for the purchasers to place on the graves.

If you order a wreath through Charles County Right to Life but can’t attend the ceremony, we will place the wreath on the designated grave for you. If you do not have a designated grave, we will place it on another veteran’s grave. Even if you don’t purchase a wreath, you may still want to attend the ceremony and help place wreaths to honor our deceased U.S. veterans who defended our country.

The wreaths are $15 each, with $5 of that going to the organization that sold them. Orders should be in by Nov. 27, but we may have extras available. Contact Robert Boudreaux at 301-638-7042 or boodro6@ comcast.net to order a wreath.

If you know of someone who has a relative or friend buried at Cheltenham but doesn’t know of WAA or isn’t living in the area, we would appreciate it if you would tell them about this program. Thank you in advance.