Windsor to Honor Veterans with 'Wreaths Across America' Ceremony

From Laura Soll Public Relations: This Saturday, December 17 at 12 noon, veterans and community groups in Windsor, Conn. will join hundreds of other locations across the U.S. in holding a “National Wreaths Across America Day” wreath-laying ceremony. This ceremony will be held in the Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery on East St. – rain or shine, and will be hosted by Carmon Community Funeral Homes of Windsor and Windsor’s American Legion Post #59.

“Windsor’s ceremony will feature a color guard, readings by local clergy and veterans – including members of the Hispanic-American Veterans of Connecticut, Inc. (HAVOCT) – followed by the ceremonial laying of wreaths by local Boy Scout Troops 149 and 203,” explains Matthew Carmon, a third-generation funeral director at Carmon Community Funeral Home. “Everyone is welcome to come to the free ceremony to pay respect to the lives and service of our nation’s veterans.” Matthew’s grandfather and company founder, Frank W. Carmon Jr., received three Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Cross, among other decorations, during World War II. The family-owned firm has been serving families for 70 years in North Central Connecticut with funeral homes in Avon, Granby, Hartford, Rockville, South Windsor, Suffield, Vernon, and Windsor (2 locations), and its own on-site Mount Laurel Crematory.

The annual ceremony at Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery was started seven years ago when the Wreaths Across America program reached out to HAVOCT. They were joined by Carmon Community Funeral Homes and Windsor American Legion Post #59, and community groups including local Boy Scout troops, and the event has grown larger every year since.

Wreaths Across America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 2007 to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery started more than 20 years ago by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester. In 1992, Worcester and his company, Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Me., donated the first wreaths, numbering just 5,000, and all were placed at the cemetery. Wreaths Across America has since expanded to include more than 1,000 local groups in all 50 states, representing more than 1,100 locations including cemeteries, military memorials, our nation’s cemetery at Arlington, national veterans’ cemeteries on foreign soil, and ceremonies at sea.

In 2008, Congress issued a proclamation officially recognizing “Wreaths Across America Day” each December. This year, it will be held on Saturday, December 17. The one-millionth wreath was placed in 2012, on the 22nd anniversary of the project. The organization’s mission, Remember, Honor, Teach, is carried out in part by coordinating these numerous wreath-laying ceremonies, and is committed to teaching younger generations about the value of their freedoms and the importance of honoring those who sacrificed so much to protect those freedoms.

For more information about the December 17 Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery’s Wreaths Across America ceremony, email mcarmon@carmonfh.com or call 860-688-2200.

Images via Laura Soll Public Relations