Wreaths Across America 2013

[Eclipse]

Is this the big weekend?  Other then a casual mention along with the last Vector, and an email blast specific to
Arlington, I've seen basically nothing on it this year, and it's usually a pretty big deal.

Google made up the shortfall for the Arlington wreaths:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/google-donates-cash-to-help-group-put-holiday-wreaths-on-arlington-graves/2013/12/10/faccf9c2-61d0-11e3-bf45-61f69f54fc5f_story.html



My kids' Scout troops sold them from a different place, so I wound up delivering a 72" monster in town, but I don't think I've seen
anything locally CAP-related at all.

I know last year there some "issue" with delivery where somebody didn't pay someone and for about a day they were locked in a depot
or some truck and they were asking for people to go and get them, and then it was cleared up.

Is it still as big a deal as always, or was this a "cool" year for CAP and WAA?

[a2capt]

We're doing it tomorrow.

[HGjunkie]

We had a ceremony at Bay Pines Nat. Cem. with ~250-300 people in attendance. I was COT for the Honor Guard, and it went off without a hitch (except for a delay in the wreaths arriving). Overall, it's getting bigger and bigger every year it seems like.

[MSG Mac]

Our unit participated at the Cheltenham Veterans   in Maryland

[NIN]

My unit did our ceremony at the local cemetery (not the veteran's cemetery up the road), and it was just us: seniors, cadets & parents.



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[BFreemanMA]

My unit held a ceremony for which I was MC. It was nearly single digits in terms of temperature,  but we still had a decent turn out. Our cadets and other parties involved did an excellent job honoring our vets. WAA is probably one of my favorite events of the year because of how everyone comes together, despite agencies, branch affiliation, or experience. An absolute honor to be a part of it all!

[Eclipse]

Has anyone actually been selling wreaths?

[NIN]

My unit held a ceremony for which I was MC. It was nearly single digits in terms of temperature,  but we still had a decent turn out.

I was pretty stoked to find out the temp actually doubled from the beginning to the end of our activity: from 5 degrees to 10.

It was *wicked* cold.

[PHall]

The cold makes the wreaths last longer!

[tsrup]

Has anyone actually been selling wreaths?

Yes. we sold over a hundred more than last year.

[Rick-DEL]

1,700 wreaths at our veteran cemetery in DE. Last year we only had a little over 800 and the year before - 61. So, it is growing. Still sad that we have 12,000 fallen buried there...but we are working towards having one on each headstone. Our squadron got just under 400 sponsors.

[Slim]

Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, MI.

~8700 wreaths (doubled from last year)
~1200 people.

All this during the first "Significant snow event" of the winter; snowing continuously (ended up with about 3" by the end of the ceremony), 20 degrees, and about a 20MPH wind off the lake adjacent to the cemetery.  As a result of the weather, the trucks were about half an hour late, which pushed everything else back.

There are 17,000 interred at GLNC, but only about 13,000 actually in the ground (the rest are in cremation niches).  Between what we placed, and what had already been placed by families (wreaths and grave blankets), there were only maybe 200 graves with nothing on them.

While taking a minute or two to warm up before the formal ceremony(in a donated RV we had arranged), my bagpiper made the best suggestion all day:  Do this in July, and call it Leis Across America.

[ol'fido]

This is a picture of one of my squadrons from Sunday.