Wreath ceremony honors veterans

About 35 people braved the cold, wet weather Saturday morning to honor local veterans at Glendale Cemetery as part of a national wreath ceremony.

While Memorial Day and Veterans Day are two of the most popular days to honor veterans, the second Saturday in December is quickly gaining attention.

This is the fifth year that Washington has participated in the Wreaths Across America ceremony. At the same time Washington veterans were laying wreaths to honor all branches of the armed services, a similar ceremony was being conducted at Arlington National Cemetery and in 500 other cities in the United States.

Local event organizer Carol Moss said the ceremony has come about from a deep sense of gratitude to veterans. Moss, formerly the city clerk, is a city alderman.

"There have been so many from my family who have served and been veterans," Moss said. "I believe anytime we have an opportunity to honor our veterans, we should. You can never really thank them enough."

During the ceremony, veterans Terry Cunningham, John Bearce, Brad Swearingen, Mickey Brecklin, Wally King, Gene Broadbear and Dan Semlow laid wreaths at the veterans' memorial in Glendale.

The wreaths represented the Merchant Marines, Marines, Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force and POW/MIA veterans.

Semlow, who is the Commander of the VFW Post in Washington, said during the ceremony that the men and women who are veterans or active duty personnel are driven by a common idea.

"We want to give our kids, grand-kids and the future generations the same kind of opportunity and freedoms we have," Semlow said.

Prior to and after the ceremony, volunteers decorated veterans' graves with wreaths. Moss said there were more than 650 veterans buried in Glendale. Volunteers were also seen laying wreaths on veterans' graves Saturday at Hillcrest Cemetery, just south of Washington.

Wreaths Across America became a not-for-profit organization in 2006 to provide a wreath to decorate veterans' graves for the holiday season.

The idea for Wreaths Across America started in the early 1990s when the owner of a Maine-based wreath company wanted to decorate the graves at Arlington National Cemetery with the extra wreaths he would not be able to sell during the holidays. He wanted to decorate veterans' graves because he was inspired by a boyhood trip to Arlington, according to information provided by Wreaths Across America.