BOURNE – Wreaths will be placed on gravesites at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne this holiday season.
Dennis Mills, a sergeant with the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Joint Base Cape Cod, is organizing the Wreaths Across America campaign.
Family members may buy a wreath in a memory of a loved one, but wreaths not purchased for a specific grave, will be laid in a certain area of the cemetery, where it will be rotated each year.
Wreaths Across America was started by Morrill Worcester in 1992 as a national effort and has grown to include veterans cemeteries across the country.
Over 700,000 wreaths were laid at 1,000 locations last year.
Two hundred wreaths were donated for the event at the Bourne cemetery last year.
Dennis Mills is organizing the event and said they just missed the mark of his goal of getting 5,000 wreaths sponsored.
“Currently we have 1,804 wreaths sponsored for the cemetery in Bourne,” said Mills. “My goal is still going to be 5,000. We were almost there last year. The community on the Cape and Islands and the local surrounding areas, they’ve been awesome, and I’m sure we’ll hit that mark this year.”
The wreath-laying ceremony will be held at noon on December 12 and will include a presentation and speech from Gold Star mother Kae McGuuire.
To sponsor a wreath, go to wreathsacrossamerica.com and follow the prompts to designate “MANCBO”, which stands for Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, as the destination for the wreath.
The deadline to sponsor is today.
Anyone interested in participating can contact Mills through the Wreaths Across America website.
“The mantra of Wreaths Across America is to honor, respect and teach, obviously by us doing this, that’s as much as honor as you can possibly give,” said Mills. “Especially in the holiday season, for folks to look out there and see that, it’s fantastic.”
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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This email is dated 2015. When is the date this year (2017) for the laying of the wreaths at Bourne? I would like to donate a wreath to be laid on the grave of my husband, Ernest G. Smith II in Bourne.
Thank you,
Anne Hughes Smith
This email is dated 2015. When is the date this year (2017) for the laying of the wreaths at Bourne? I would like to donate a wreath to be laid on the grave of my husband, Ernest G. Smith II in Bourne.
Thank you,