Warwick Valley Gardeners and veterans participate in Wreaths Across America

WARWICK — On Saturday afternoon, Dec. 15, American Legion Post 214 2nd. Vice Commander Stan Martin and 3rd Vice Commander Tom Brennan, along with a group of representatives from the Warwick Valley Gardeners, assembled at Warwick's Veterans Memorial Park to lay a wreath at the Veterans Monument.
Chairperson of the event, Gert Galligan, a member of the Warwick Valley Gardeners, and Martin conducted the brief ceremony held in conjunction with Wreaths Across America, a tradition of laying holiday-time wreaths on veterans' graves to honor their service and their memories.
More than 1,200 cemeteries across the nation participated in the event with volunteers laying approximately 700,000 wreaths. And approximately 3,000 wreaths were laid by 200 volunteers during the ceremony at Orange County Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
The tradition of laying wreaths to honor veterans began in 1992, when Morrill Worcester, the owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, had extra wreaths at the close of the Holiday season.
He remembered a boyhood trip to Arlington National Cemetery and decided to donate 5,000 wreaths to be placed on the headstones.
By 2014, Wreaths Across America and its national network of volunteers laid over 700,000 memorial wreaths at 1,000 locations in the United States and beyond, including ceremonies at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge and the sites of the September 11 tragedies.
Martin thanked the Warwick Valley Gardeners for their support and mentioned that Wreaths Across America is now celebrated at various locations throughout Orange County.
The annual laying of a wreath in Veterans Memorial Park, sponsored by the Warwick Valley Gardeners and local veterans organizations, pays tribute to our local veterans.
"We may not always say it," said Galligan, "but we are always grateful for the services performed by our veterans."
Among the members of the Warwick Gardeners present was Catherine Arthur, whose late husband, Richard, was a World War II Navy medic during the D-Day Normandy invasion.
The Wreaths Across America Program is a well acclaimed tribute program to our American Veterans and, as well, is a sponsored program of Federated Garden Clubs of New York State.
- Roger Gavan