Wreaths to decorate veteran gravestones by December 18

The Owego and Tioga County Wreaths Across America’s 14th Annual Program needs your help to reach their goal of community members placing a Christmas wreath on veteran graves in Tioga County, The Valley, and Bradford and Susquehanna Counties in Pennsylvania. 

Every time you help wreath laying for veterans you are also honoring their families, and preparing a new generation to appreciate America’s freedoms. 

On or before National Wreaths Across America Day, recognized as Saturday, Dec. 18, local organizers hope 2021 will be the year that a wreath can be placed on every single one of the graves. 

“Don’t Say I Should Have. Say I Did,” is the theme this year. 

Veterans will lay wreaths at veteran memorials in Owego, Nichols, Candor, Spencer Van Etten, Waverly, and The Valley area. 

Entrances to cemeteries can have one wreath donated by a church, thanks to the initiative of its congregation. Church pastors are encouraged to communicate the wreaths story within their worship service on Sundays Dec. 5 and Dec. 12.    

Tioga County has 189 Fallen Heroes; 76 were physically found, 47 are buried overseas, 40 are buried outside of Tioga County, and there was no information found on 26. WW1 has 189. This data is sourced from Troop 60 Eagle Scout Ryan Trenchard’s Fallen Heroes survey and published book. 

Headstones of 76 Tioga County Fallen Heroes in 24 local cemeteries need wreaths. Community support to buy wreaths would significantly help their Gold Star Mothers and Families and relatives.  

Veterans of all wars should get a wreath laid by a member of their family or a close friend. Again, assistance from the public would make this a reality. 

Cemeteries where Fallen Heroes are buried include Evergreen Cemetery in Owego, Nichols, St. Patrick’s in Owego, Tioga Cemetery in Owego, Schoonover in Tioga, Riverside in Lounsberry, Hope Cemetery in Newark Valley, Maple Grove in Candor, Flemingville, Evergreen in Berkshire, Evergreen in Spencer, Smith Valley in Willseyville, Highland in Richford, Marshland in Apalachin, Barton, Smithboro, East Newark Valley, Glenwood in Waverly, Factoryville in Waverly, Emory Chapel in Waverly, and St. James and Forrest Cemeteries in Waverly. 

But here’s where community help is also encouraged. Some family members may be deceased or live out of area. For them, you may get a wreath, go to the cemetery you are most familiar with, find the grave of a veteran and place an evergreen.  

Graves of veterans are marked with an American flag, a flag holder, and a veterans memorial plaque on the backside of the headstone; or if a gravestone is flat, on the ground look for a veterans inscription of name and branch of service. 

Residents are asked to buy or make an evergreen wreath for placement on a veteran grave in their preferred cemetery. Here’s why. 

The mission of Wreaths Across America is to REMEMBER the fallen that gave up their tomorrows with family and loved ones so that we can enjoy our freedoms today. HONOR those who served, the men and women of the armed forces who put themselves in harm’s way to protect us. TEACH our children about the freedoms we enjoy each day, and the great cost at which they were purchased. 

American Legion Posts in Nichols, Candor, Spencer Van Etten and Waverly, and VFW Posts in Owego, Waverly and Sayre, and Waverly Friends of the Cemetery will coordinate wreath laying and remembrance ceremonies. 

Last year 250,000 wreaths were placed at Arlington National Cemetery. This year volunteers will place more at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 18. What’s more, there are over 2,557 participating locations in every state to include Puerto Rico, and 24 cemeteries overseas where 47 Tioga County Fallen Heroes have been buried since World War II.  

Overseas initiatives include Luxembourg, where there are 15,457 veteran graves (four from Tioga County), and Netherlands, where there are over 8,000 veteran graves (four from Tioga County). 

Luxembourg includes Army Private Robert C. Baker of Candor, Army Private Hugh R. Gardner Jr. of Apalachin, Army Private William Harding, and Army Pfc. Richard Warner. Netherlands Margraten includes Army Sgt. Richard A. Hoyt of Candor, Army Private Walter Magee of Lounsberry, Army Pfc. Glenn A. Warner of Owego, and Army Pfc. Edward E. Whalen of Straits Corners.   

Why wreaths during the holidays? Be in a cemetery in the presence of a Gold Star Mother and Family or the families of veterans who have passed. They just want to know all those sacrifices and lost holidays were not in vain. Tioga County has 189 fallen heroes from all wars. Exact count is not known, but an estimated 5,000 veterans are buried in our cemeteries.   

Wreaths Across America has a website, www.weathsacrossamerica.org. Local contact is Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Chairman, Jim Raftis, by email to jraftis2@stny.rr.com.