A Mission To Honor Marblehead's Fallen Veterans With Holiday Wreaths

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead emergency 911 dispatcher Teresa Collins has long been a huge supporter of efforts to celebrate and honor the service of veterans to the North Shore.

Each year, she would take time aside from her critical work in town to hop on her motorcycle and be part of convoys that ran from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. She led efforts to remember the sacrifices of fallen police and fire personnel as well as Gold Star families while helping lay wreaths on the graves of veterans at Salem's Greenlawn Cemetery each holiday season.

"Then the pandemic happened and the world kind of stopped for a while," she told Patch. "The man who had been heading up the Salem program moved to Florida and no one was there to really pick it up. I was sitting here in dispatch one day doing my job and thought: 'Why don't we do it here in Marblehead?'

"We have such a deep military history in Marblehead. Now is the time to do it. I thought: 'My golly, I am going to get this done.'"

It proved to be a lofty challenge.

First, Collins had to find out how many veterans were buried in Marblehead's Waterside Cemetery when no easily accessible records existed. Then she had to find a way to get as many wreaths on as many of those graves as possible in the first year of her Wreaths Across America program.

"I didn't know how many there were," she said. "The trouble was there was no database. With the help of some of the elders in town, we researched all 19,000 names of those buried at Waterside and found just under 2,000 of them were veterans."

There is a specific veterans section of the cemetery with 179 headstones as well as the Grand Army of the Republic section with 37 headstones of Civil War veterans.

"I thought having wreaths for those was a great goal to have for our very first year," she said.

As of this week, she has exceeded that goal with 260 wreaths to cover the veterans' section and G.A.R. sections as she looks to jump-start a tradition she hopes will expand each year.

"I am super excited to bring this to Marblehead," she said. "One of the keystones is to remember, honor and teach. I think it's super important to teach the children in the town the value of freedom."

Wreaths Across America seeks sponsorships that go toward one wreath per veteran grave. A $15 sponsorship covers one grave with those interested able to donate until Nov. 29. Marblehead residents who want their sponsored wreath to go to Wayside can click the MAWATC link sponsor here.

Collins, a former Scout, said she has enlisted the help of town Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts and Brownie troops to help lay the wreaths at a ceremony at noon on Dec. 17. However, all are invited to attend the ceremony involving police, fire and members of each branch of military service and help distribute the wreaths to the cemetery.

"It's involved a ton of research but I can't believe now it's almost here," he said. "I am super excited that it's all coming together.

"I am grateful for the support of the town in this mission. Especially in these times where $15 can go a long way in helping buy food and gas, it's great that so many have donated to this cause."

(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.)