By Mary Faulds, AFA Journal staff writer
November-December 2008 – Snow falls gently upon the rows of marble tombstones in Arlington National Cemetery. There is a stark contrast as volunteers place lush, green wreaths with vibrant red bows by each white stone. The wreaths bring a sense of life and celebration to the cold, wintry landscape.
The Wreaths Across America (WAA) story began over 15 years ago when Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine, began a tradition of placing wreaths on the headstones of our nation’s fallen heroes at Arlington National Cemetery during the holidays.
Worcester Wreath and its involvement with WAA was inspired when, as a Bangor Daily News paperboy, Morrill Worcester, at the early age of 12, won a trip to the nation’s capital. “The news put out a program where if you gained a certain number of customers on your route you’d win a trip to Washington, and I gained those customers and won the trip,” he said.
It was a trip he would never forget, and Arlington National Cemetery made an indelible impression. “It’s a huge place and the gravestones are all lined up. It looked like a very well-organized place,” Worcester said. “Then as I learned more about it, it just kind of stuck with me.”
In later life, Worcester recognized that his business success was, in large part, due to the values of this nation and its veterans.
“I’ve been very lucky over the years that I’ve been successful in the balsam business,” he said, “and I got to thinking about it, and it’s got a lot to do with the freedom that we all have. And the people that are buried at Arlington were very instrumental in the freedom we now enjoy.”
In 1992, the Worcester Wreath Company found itself with an excess of wreaths nearing the end of the holiday season. “It was actually a mistake,” Worcester laughed. “I didn’t want to throw the wreaths away. They were nice and fresh.”
Seeing an opportunity to honor those who gave their lives, Worcester began efforts to do something special with those wreaths. With the help of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, arrangements were made for the wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older sections of the cemetery.
“It was so well-received that we have done it ever since.” he said. “We haven’t had the leftovers like in 1992. We now always make them special, especially for that.” Worcester has donated over 90,000 wreaths since the program started.
As the project grew, a number of other participants joined in. James Prout, owner of Blue Bird Ranch Inc. provided transportation all the way to Virginia. Volunteers from the local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts gathered with members of the community to decorate each wreath with signature red, hand-tied bows.
But as word spread, the WAA mission to “Remember, Honor and Teach” captured the hearts and minds of many communities across the country. Now WAA reaches all 50 states plus 24 overseas American cemeteries.
The original group has been joined by many others who participate in the project each year. After learning of the annual trek to Arlington to honor those fallen, Larry Ross, an elementary school teacher from Canaan, Maine, has taken several groups of his students, which have been dubbed the “Red Hatted Entourage,” to help place the wreaths.
In December 2007, 286 participating locations hosted Wreaths Across America ceremonies overseeing the placement of 32,553 wreaths on the headstones of those who served and sacrificed for our freedoms. Of that, Worcester Wreath donated 16,000 wreaths, but the rest were donated by numerous other people and groups.
This year the wreath-laying ceremonies will be held concurrently at all the participating cemeteries on Saturday, December 13, 2008, at 12:00 noon EST.
Families, churches, civic groups and schools can sponsor wreaths by visiting www.wreaths-across-america.org.The Web site also has an extensive list of participating cemeteries.
“We have a room at our company that is just solid full of correspondence and photographs of people that have been sent to us,” said Worcester. “We get responses all the time. People thank us for decorating their husband’s, or their son’s or a relative’s grave.”
But the gratitude doesn’t come from just the families of those buried; it comes from the volunteers who lay the wreaths. One young member of the Red Hatted Entourage sent a poem to WAA after she helped lay wreaths in Arlington.
Arlington
An endless sea of balsam rounds,
Of red bows barely sweeping the grounds.
In the snow covered path of gently laid graves.
Lies the heart and soul of so many braves.
I lay them down one by one,
Thinking what a good thing I have just done.
As each wreath is carefully laid,
A million words are thought and prayed. 
