Holiday wreath ceremony grows as does cemetery

Saturday morning broke crisply with a light dusting of icy frost on windshields and car roofs.

But that didn’t deter nearly 350 people from driving to the Northern California Veterans Cemetery to decorate grave markers and memorials with holiday wreaths.

This was the fourth year I have participated in the ceremony and each year the public participation grows.

The first ceremony, held in 2007, involved three wreaths from the Wreaths Across America program and was witnessed by seven people, most of whom were also involved in the ceremony itself, said Stephen Jorgensen, administrator of the state-run cemetery that opened in 2005.

In 2008, volunteers rallied by veterans advocate Kim Chamberlain and others cut fresh boughs and hand-made 500 wreaths so that every grave marker and memorial at the cemetery would have some decoration for the Christmas holiday period.

In 2009, the volunteers made more than 700 fresh wreaths, but the cemetery’s headstone count was growing so quickly that several dozen artificial wreaths were purchased with funding provided by Anderson Rotary Club.

Last year, Kim Chamberlain and I applied for and received a $5,000 district grant from Rotary International that was used to purchase 1,000 artificial wreaths. The volunteers made several large wreaths out of fresh boughs to decorate the six columbaria walls, the cemetery’s front gates and for use decorating the emblems of each of seven branches of uniformed service.

Saturday, more than 1,600 artificial wreaths were needed to decorate all of those elements, and next year the number will swell to well more than 2,000 wreaths, Jorgensen said.

Aside from beautifying the cemetery and helping those newly-bereaved survivors deal with the loss of a loved one during the holidays, the real value of such a ceremony is to further educate youths of all ages of the importance of military service and the contributions of those veterans to maintaining our nation’s freedom.

Please consider joining us at next year’s wreath-laying ceremony, and please visit the Northern California Veterans Cemetery this holiday season.

You will not be disappointed.