More than 1,000 departed veterans will be honored in Logan County this weekend, when the Wreaths Across America program returns Saturday, Dec. 13, joining more than 5,600 other locations worldwide.
An indoor ceremony is set for 10 a.m. Saturday at Makley Hall, 316 E. Patterson Ave., Bellefontaine, prior to wreath laying activities at Bellefontaine City Cemetery, 632 E. Brown Ave., and Calvary Cemetery, 1793 County Road 18, Bellefontaine.
Brigadier General Matthew Woodruff, Ohio Adjutant General, will be the speaker for the ceremony this year. He is a native of Logan County.
Father Shawn Landenwitch will provide the ceremony’s invocation and benediction. Veterans, active service members, families and volunteers will also be in attendance.
Traditionally, the ceremony has been conducted at the respective cemeteries, but a forecast of approximately 20 degrees Saturday and a wind chill hovering in the single digits caused organizers to look at this new alternative location.
“We hope having an indoor ceremony will make attending a little easier for all involved. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. and once we finish, we will disperse to the cemeteries to lay the wreaths,” organizers said.
“For volunteers who can assist with laying wreaths, please dress appropriately for the weather.”
Coordinated and led by local volunteers, sponsorship groups have raised funds throughout the year to sponsor the placement of 1,045 veterans’ wreaths on the headstones of our fallen service members laid to rest at Bellefontaine City Cemetery and Calvary Cemetery.
In addition, wreath-laying ceremonies in Logan County also are planned in Belle Center and Rushsylvania/Rushcreek Township.
According to the Belle Center Vets’s Wreaths Across America page, Belle Center veterans and volunteers host a ceremony at noon Saturday, Dec. 13, at Fairview Cemetery, Belle Center, to remember and honor our veterans by laying remembrance wreaths on the graves of our country’s fallen heroes.
A volunteer effort is also taking shape in Rushsylvania and Rushcreek Township to honor veterans at Rushsylvania Cemetery and other cemeteries in the township.
Wreaths Across America is a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, which was begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992.
The organization’s yearlong mission – Remember, Honor, Teach – is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.
For more information or to sponsor a wreath, visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.
