DANVILLE — Wreaths Across America needs help to place wreaths at every veteran’s grave on Dec. 13.
There are over 141 locations across Illinois with at least 216,128 veterans buried that will receive wreaths through the organization’s volunteers.
“We’ve seen exponential growth, actually. At this time last year, we had 40,909 locations,” said Rachael Wilson, Public Relations Coordinator for Wreaths Across America. “And then this year we have over 5,600, so 700 cemeteries across the US have signed up this year.”
While the organization will be at Danville’s National Cemetery on Dec. 13 to lay wreaths, they also lay wreaths in other cemeteries.
And the effort goes beyond the symbolism of laying a wreath to education in classrooms across the country.
Wilson said there are lesson plans available on their website.
She said, “There are a Revolutionary period of lesson plans, and we just got them all in Spanish. So I’m pretty excited about that, because, you know, as well as I do, if you cover school districts, but a lot of times Spanish second language gets left behind a little more, and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
If you want to get involved, you can, no matter your age.
“There are ways schools can get involved; a third of our volunteers are kids,” Wilson said. “They love it.”
To find locations near you to volunteer with, head on over to their website: www.wreathsacrossamerica.org, and through the search feature, you can find participating locations near you.
If you would like to sponsor a wreath for a specific veteran, you can also do that on their website. Sponsorship for a wreath is $17.
You can also simply show up at a participating cemetery on Dec. 13 to help as well.
“It would be disingenuous for us as an organization whose mission is to Remember, Honor, and Teach, if we did not also support like-minded programs serving their communities,” said Karen Worcester, WAA Executive Director. “Our Group Sponsorship Program is a year-round effort, and our programs provide the tools so donors can be confident their support benefits a local cause.”