WEST POINT, N.Y. (Dec. 11, 2015) - The sixth annual West Point Wreaths Across America Association honored the fallen at the West Point Cemetery Dec. 5.
Honored guests included Gold Star Parents, who like Lorraine Voelke, received a wreath to place on the gravestone of her son, Maj. Paul Voelke, USMA Class of 1998. Voelke was killed on his second deployment to Afghanistan. Vivian Allen remembered her son Bob, Army National Guard, who was killed in Iraq June 8, 2005, by placing a wreath on a gravestone at the West Point Cemetery.
This year saw a record number of wreath donations, 7,004 wreaths received by West Point Volunteers on two trucks, and was enough to cover every gravestone at the cemetery.
Significant donations from the Wounded Warrior Project, Daughters of the United States Army, West Point Spouses Club and FDNY 7th Division helped in achieving the coverage of every gravestone.
Cadets and community members, a total of 500, volunteered in all areas from unloading the wreaths, presenting wreaths to special guests and helping to place wreaths on gravestones. Volunteers also included drivers of the two donated trucks that brought the wreaths to West Point.
West Point's Wreaths Across America affiliation began in 2010 and even though it is a local event, it attempts to replicate the larger event that began at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. in 1992.
The idea began with Morrill Worcester, who visited Arlington Cemetery as a boy and left an indelible impression on him. As Worcester began a successful business with Worcester Wreaths, which he founded in 1992, he had a surplus of wreaths during the holiday season. He remembered Arlington and realized he had a chance to honor our country's veterans by donating the wreaths to be placed on gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. As plans were made to disperse the wreaths, volunteers and organizations stepped up to help. Trucks were donated to transport the wreaths.
The annual tribute went on quietly for several years until 2005, when a photo of the stones at Arlington, adorned with wreaths and covered in snow was posted on the Internet. The photo went viral quickly and the project began receiving national recognition. Then thousands of requests poured in from all over the country from people who wanted to help or to create the same event in their local veteran cemetery.
In 2007, the Worcester family, veterans and other groups and individuals who assisted with the annual Christmas wreath ceremony formed Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit 501-C3 organization to continue and expand this effort.
Generally, West Point's WAA ceremony is held during the Army-Navy Weekend. West Point ties the ideals of Duty, Honor, Country with the WAA mission to Remember, Honor, Teach: to remember the fallen, to honor their sacrifice and to teach the younger generation about the value of their freedom.
Related Links:
U.S. Military Academy at West Point website
U.S. Army Garrison West Point website
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