SEASIDE HEIGHTS – When Deborah O’Neil invited Wreaths Across America to bring its traveling exhibition to the community, she hardly expected it to come so soon, but it arrived a few days after Memorial Day.
That date was highly appropriate considering the organization’s mission which is to “honor those who serve and their families, and teach future generations about the sacrifices made to preserve our freedoms.”
O’Neil retired a few years ago as a police communications supervisor and has made the support of veterans a top priority.
“It all began about a year ago. I learned about this and said this would be really nice to have come to our town so I put in for it. I learned a few weeks ago that we were accepted. Mayor (Anthony) Vaz said that was great. This is a very patriotic town,” O’Neil said.
“We are a national non-profit we are based out of Columbia Falls, Maine which is a little town six hours east of Boston, Massachusetts. Our mission statement of Wreaths Across America is three simple words, ‘remember, honor, teach.’ When we talk about Wreaths Across America we talk about those words with emphasis on the word, ‘remember’,” WAA Mobile Education Exhibit Ambassador Stefan Brann said.
“That is why we do what we do every year which is to remember our fallen vets and those of the United States military who are no longer with us. We place what we call ‘veterans remembrance wreaths’ or any variation of those words except for ‘Christmas wreath.’ It is isn’t a Christmas wreath as that has a whole other meaning. On December 18, 2021 it will be our 29th year of doing this,” Brann said.
Brann added, “it all started at Arlington National Cemetery in December of 1992 with 5,000 wreaths and it has grown since then. We virtually went unnoticed for 13 years. An Air Force photographer took a picture of the wreaths at the cemetery and published it in a military magazine and that was it. In 2007 Wreaths Across America was formed as an organization and we have kept growing from there.”
Last year 1.7 million veterans’ wreaths were placed in total across the country, approximately 267,000 of them at Arlington National Cemetery including 14,000 for the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery. More than one million volunteers participated at 2,557 locations nationwide. More than a third of the volunteers were children.
Over 500 truckloads of wreaths were delivered across the country by hundreds of volunteer professional truck drivers. Their vehicles and fuel were donated.
“In 2018 was the beginning of our overseas project. We went to Normandy with over 9,000 wreaths,” Brann said. “Last year when other nonprofit organizations were failing (due to conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic) we saw growth of over 400 locations.”
The event gained the help of New Jersey Warehouse and Movers Association based in Toms River. “Our members are licensed movers in New Jersey. They (WAA) needed transportation and our members are sponsors,” Association Executive Director Tracy Denora said. She added the event also involved coordination by the Women of the Ortley Beach Moose “who did all this preparing.”
David “Mel” Russen Jr. of Point Pleasant serves as WAA’s treasurer. “I am a location leader here, Point Pleasant, Manasquan and Brick so I go out and look for cemeteries and so far I have seven that we sponsor.”
“We are very fortunate in that not only did we get the mobile unit (from WAA) but we are also sponsoring Ocean County Memorial Park Cemetery that have about 300 veterans buried there so we are hoping to get enough wreaths to place on their graves,” O’Neil said.
School children and teachers from the Hugh J. Boyd Elementary School took advantage of the close proximity of the exhibit to their school and came inside to watch a short video featuring some U.S. history about veterans and a short synopsis about WAA.
Teacher Carolyn Cabinski said, “I think this is wonderful. We had never heard about Wreaths Across America before. They do a wonderful job. They said they went from 1 million to 2 ½ million wreaths. It is interesting that they have been doing this for 29 years and started before they formed into an organization.”
Members of the Shore Boros American Legion Post #351 visited the exhibit. It was just a few steps away from the Post. Commander William Kevish said, “we have heard about this for many, many years but we’ve never been involved as we are today and I am so grateful that this project came to Seaside Heights and we were allowed to participate in a small way. People are coming into the trailer here and donating money. Members of our post have done that.”
He noted a ceremony was held “over by our monuments and having a wreath placed on a gravestone. It was really a heartwarming service and I think people should really come out and support it if it comes to their town.”
The exhibit had traveled to Seaside Heights from California and the next day moved on to Ohio.
