'It Was Perfect': 679 Wreaths Laid At Marblehead's Waterside Cemetery

MARBLEHEAD, MA — When Teresa Collins decided to take on the daunting challenge of starting a Wreaths Across America program at Marblehead's Waterside Cemetery she said she was hoping to generate enough sponsorships to honor at least the 179 soldiers buried in the veterans' section of the cemetery.

She wound up more than tripling that goal as she and about 100 volunteers on Saturday laid 679 wreaths across the historic cemetery.

"It was perfect — the event itself was perfect," Collins, a Marblehead emergency services dispatcher, told Patch on Monday. "It seemed incredible for the first year to have so much support with wreath sponsorship from donors.

"I am stunned and thrilled and so grateful for this community."

Collins said she received several sponsorships from families of veterans who no longer live in Marblehead but wanted to be a part of the event, so she laid some of those wreaths herself and took pictures to send to the donating relatives.

"It's a way for them to still say connected to home," she said. "Those stories keep trickling in. It's like bringing people home for the holidays. It's really nice."

Before the Waterside events, Collins and volunteers also laid wreaths at the graves of General John Glover and Joseph Brown, as well as the 1929 monument for those who fought in the Revolutionary War.

"There is so much history in this town," she said. "We wanted to make sure that we covered all the bases."

Glover's Marblehead Regiment, 2022 Marine Corps League Marine of the Year Steve Coddens, Marblehead Veterans Agent Dave Rogers, and members representing all branches of the military were at Saturday's event, which included a gun salute, cannon firing, and the playing of "Taps."

Collins told Patch "the attempt was always to make it an annual event" and that she is hoping to get a big jump start on next with the help of a matching sponsorship offer from Wreaths Across America. Anyone who sponsors a wreath through the Marblehead site from now until Jan. 15 will have their sponsorship matched by the organization.

"The hope is to get to people while it's still fresh in their minds from this year," she said.

Collins told Patch last month that research indicated that about 2,000 of the 19,000 people buried at Waterside were veterans.

To make sure a donation is matched in Marblehead, the sponsorship should include the group and location ID Marblehead — MAWATC & MA0153.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)