The Wreaths Across America story began over 20 years ago when Worchester Wreath Company (a for-profit commercial business from Harrington, Maine) began a tradition of placing wreaths on the headstones of our Nation's fallen heros at Arlington National Cemetary.
Over the years, Worcester Wreath has donated countless wreaths which were placed by volunteers in a wreath laying ceremony each December.
In 2007, Scott DeMasi and his son Alex, were looking at a video about the Arlinghton wreath laying ceremony and commenting on the event here at the Houston National Cemetary. They placed their order for wreaths and called the cemetary to see when they could place them. They then found out that the Houston National Cemetary does not receive the live wreaths for all burial sites, due to lack of funding.
The cemetary does receive seven wreaths (each representing Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and the MIA/POW's) as all other National Cemetaries do. The ceremony is held to place seven wreaths in the front of the National Cemetary. Again, unfortunately, the funding had never been in place to honor more heroes at Houston National Cemetary.
Alex, perplexed by this claimed, "that's not fair" and later in the day simply stated "let's go get some wreaths". This was the beginning of a goal for not only one boy and his dad, but also family, friends and an entire community. Scott, not wanting to disappoint his son and realizing Alex was correct, this isn't fair to the memory of our heroes, called out to his friends and family to spread the word and start a Houston tradition.
Now over six years later, the city of Houston is behind the event and making a tremendous impact on the memory of our loved ones.
Houston will show the nation, once again how we honor our fallen soldiers, by placing a wreath on 60,000+ grave sites at the Houston National Cemetary. Although we have not yet reached our goal for ALL the heroes resting at Houston National Cemetary to be honored, each year we make a huge step to help honor our fallen heroes.
2013 - almost 40,000 wreaths were laid
2012 - 42, 000 wreaths were laid
2011 - 37,000 wreaths were laid
2010 - 30,000 wreaths were laid
2009 - 22,000 wreaths were laid
2008 - 14,000 wreaths were laid
We encourage and invite everyone in the Houston and surrounding communities to join us in honoring the memory and families of our fallen heroes next year December 13, 2014.
Prep Day:
The trucks will arrive at Houston National Cemetary to unload the majority of boxes to ensure a swift delivery. Volunteers are highly needed to help with the unloading of the trucks and stacking of the boxes in the designated sections of the cemetary. As well, WAA Houston needs assistance placing designation flags. Some of the Wreaths donated are for specific memories (family members, loved ones).
Event Day:
It was a chilly and damp day at the Houston National Cemetery but over 15,000 people came out to honor our fallen heroes with a wreath. With almost 40,000 wreaths in place, the cemetery simply looks breathtaking. Our sincere thanks to the thousands of individuals, families, companies, and corporations that continually help to make Wreaths Across America-Houston a place of honor for our veterans.
