In 2008, more than 60,000 volunteers placed 100,000 wreaths on veterans’ headstones nationwide. Recognizing the impact, the U.S. Congress unanimously voted to declare National Wreaths Across America Day to be held annually on the second or third Saturday of December.
A total of 60,000 volunteers and 100,000 wreaths didn’t just come together overnight. It was a grassroots movement that started with a married couple’s desire to honor our nation’s deceased veterans in December 1992.
As the owners of a wreath-making company in Harrington, Maine, the couple found themselves with a large surplus of inventory. With the help of then-Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and a volunteer with a truck, the husband and two of his teenage children made the 13-hour trek to Arlington National Cemetery to lay 5,000 wreaths on the graves of fallen Civil War veterans….