Goshen, N.Y. – Orange County’s Veterans Memorial Cemetery will host a Wreaths Across America ceremony at noon on Saturday, December 14th.
“Wreaths Across America is a great event that brings our community together during the holiday season and pays tribute to those who proudly served our country,” Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus said. “We look forward to hosting the ceremony again this year and hope that you’ll support it by donating or volunteering.”
The wreaths for the ceremony will be escorted to the Veterans Memorial Cemetery at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, December 13th. The escort will begin at the Dikeman Engine and Hose Company in Goshen and travel across the Route 17 overpass, before making a left turn on Matthews Street. The procession will continue onto West Main Street and Main Street, passing the Orange County Government Center at about 10:20 a.m. Residents are encouraged to greet the procession.
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 end of the holiday season. Worcester remembered a boyhood trip to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. and decided to donate 5,000 wreaths to be placed on the headstones of an older section of the cemetery. 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 11th tragedies.
Approximately 1,300 people attended last year’s Wreaths Across America ceremony at the County’s Veterans Cemetery. The 19-acre Veterans Memorial Cemetery has 12,500 plots. Approximately 3,400 men and women are buried there, including 2,700 veterans.
For more information about the County’s Wreaths Across America ceremony, contact Dave Andryshak at 845-494-3768. The Veterans Memorial Cemetery is located at 111 Craigville Road in Goshen.
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