Three Logan County area cemeteries are serving official Wreaths Across America locations Saturday, Dec. 14, joining in wreath-laying ceremonies with more than 4,800 other locations across the country to honor military service members laid to rest there.
Ceremonies begin at noon at Bellefontaine City Cemetery, 632 E. Brown Ave.; along with Calvary Cemetery, 1793 County Road 18, Bellefontaine; and Fairview Cemetery, located along State Route 273 east of Belle Center.
Coordinated and led by local volunteers, sponsorship groups have raised funds throughout the year to sponsor the placement veterans’ wreaths on the headstones of our fallen service members.
At the Bellefontaine City Cemetery, veteran wreaths will total 1,068. Deliveries of the wreaths took place during the last week, with the Bellefontaine Joint Recreation District unloading and storing the wreaths until the ceremony day.
At Fairview Cemetery in Belle Center, 497 wreaths will be laid Saturday on veteran and first responder graves, according to the group’s Facebook page. Volunteers exceeded their goal for donations this year, and through the generosity of the community, the group starts off the new year with 45 wreaths toward their goal for the 2025 Wreaths Across America Program in Belle Center.
Wreaths Across America was founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery initiated by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992.
The organization’s mission — Remember, Honor, Teach — is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.
The commemoration started as “a simple gesture of thanks that has grown into a national movement of dedicated volunteers and communities coming together to not only remember the nation’s fallen and honor their service, but to teach the next generation about the sacrifices made for us to live freely,” officials related.
This annual event seeks to further the year-long mission to Remember, Honor, Teach, ensuring that the memory of those who served our country endures.
For more information or to sponsor a wreath, visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.
