Wreaths Across America

EMT-83 · December 11, 2011, 02:51:30 AM

Any reports from those participating?

Eclipse · December 11, 2011, 02:59:50 AM

No mention of us here:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/10/us/wreath-laying/index.html

Extremepredjudice · December 11, 2011, 03:13:13 AM

But cub scouts get mentioned?

Eclipse · December 11, 2011, 03:16:01 AM

Apparently we fall into "other".

Woodsy · December 11, 2011, 04:12:30 AM

This year, I have really got the feeling that CAP supports WAA way more than WAA supports us. Heck, they're in our boilerplate statement for crying out loud, but we can't get a little mention???

Speaking of which... Why are they in our boilerplate statement? If you ask me, they have not business being there. WAA is not a "mission" of CAP.

Anyways, we laid nearly 4K wreathes at a ceremony today and the speaker thanked the sea cadets, boy scouts, etc for coming but no mention of our CAP squadron, which sold several hundred wreathes and had about 15 people on site today working parking detail, setting up, etc. It's been like this with all of the pre-event publicity too. Not goonna lie, I'm rather tweaked about it.

WAA is a great cause, don't get me wrong, but CAP provides way too much support for the treatment we get in return.

NCRblues · December 11, 2011, 04:41:33 AM

Quote from: Woodsy on December 11, 2011, 04:12:30 AM
CAP provides way too much support .

That is one of the problems. My local area ran into this problem not just with WAA, but with several festivals we worked parking/safety patrols (at night, NOT security...just safety patrols). CAP had worked those things for so many years that the people in charge forgot we were volunteers and started just expecting us to be there for them.

The unit I was in at the time decided we would walk away for a couple years. When we returned, we were greeted and treated much better. I hate to say this, but sometimes it pays to remind folks who ask for our help that we are VOLUNTEERS and not paid. Many people see military style uniform and automatically think uniform = pay check.

RADIOMAN015 · December 11, 2011, 05:23:24 AM

Worked out for us very well -- 2 out of 3 TV stations in our TV market area covered the event. One was more of a general video of the event and interviewed veterans BUT made specific mention of Civil Air Patrol and our cadet program. The other did an interview with one of our cadets (which I asked them to do) plus video of the color guard and wreaths. Since most of the wreaths were purchased by another civic/religious group I ensured that they were mentioned. The vast majority of our cadets participating wore service dress uniforms. We had 13 cadets as well as 14 senior members at the ceremony. Also participating were the Patriot Riders, VFW Riders, Knight of Columbus, and a civilian minister (from a church that one of our cadet members attends). One of the Knights of Columbus members actual sung a patriotic song. Additionally, two CAP members played taps (with echo) with their bugles.

Unfortunately, I didn't seen any of the print media in attendance this year. Also overall public spectator attendance was about the same as last year. Again it was COLD

Our squadron actually organizes the event so it's reasonable for us to get some mention in the news media. IF you don't organize the event than it kind of gets down to what the public relations folks for the lead organize decide to do OR have no news release at all. My guess is there's no malice intended BUT it's strictly on what the news cameras see at the time of video taping and that is what the reporter places in the narrative.

BTW for the record yes I wore my long sleeve golf shirt, gray pants. and black combat boots :angel: under a VERY heavy winter coat (also black in color), with my black USAF Retired knit watch cap (and would have gladly worn a CAP watch cap IF Vanguard had such an item). It was very COLD with the wind blowing (BUT I think for a news video standpoint the flags waving in the wind add to the ceremony's presentation), which challenged our color guard team a bit.

You know the whole ceremony lasted about 30 minutes, everyone left and it was again very quiet again at the state veteran's cemetery. I remained a bit longer to go over to a grave site of a friend's son, who had a wreath placed on the grave site, said a prayer, reflected on what my friend had told me about his son, and also took a picture (which I sent to him via email, since he is currently overseas).

I think our mission was accomplished in an excellent manner :clap:
RM

GroundHawg · December 11, 2011, 06:41:56 AM

We got some good coverage....

HGjunkie · December 11, 2011, 02:59:41 PM

I think we got a smaller crowd than last year where I did the ceremony.

RADIOMAN015 · December 11, 2011, 05:16:20 PM

Quote from: Woodsy on December 11, 2011, 04:12:30 AM
This year, I have really got the feeling that CAP supports WAA way more than WAA supports us. Heck, they're in our boilerplate statement for crying out loud, but we can't get a little mention???

Speaking of which... Why are they in our boilerplate statement? If you ask me, they have not business being there. WAA is not a "mission" of CAP.

Anyways, we laid nearly 4K wreathes at a ceremony today and the speaker thanked the sea cadets, boy scouts, etc for coming but no mention of our CAP squadron, which sold several hundred wreathes and had about 15 people on site today working parking detail, setting up, etc. It's been like this with all of the pre-event publicity too. Not goonna lie, I'm rather tweaked about it.

WAA is a great cause, don't get me wrong, but CAP provides way too much support for the treatment we get in return.

Since there's a requirement in news release include the standard tag line at the bottom, I've been including it, BUT I've found that most of the time the entire tag line gets edited completely out of the news article anyways due to space limitations. In fact I've even mentioned to some of the editors that it isn't that important to keep in there, since normally we are focus to our members within our squadron and/or our squadron as a whole. My major publisher of CAP news releases are weekly very locally focused newspapers.
RM
RM

Sgt_Benzy · December 12, 2011, 10:53:30 PM

HAHA... my squadron (MER-VA-141) was invited to Arlington this yr for WAA

MichelleTesla · December 14, 2011, 06:43:56 PM

Congratulations to Hampton Roads Squadron then. :clap:

We had a small showing at our WAA gathering. Winchester Composite Squadron put out around 350 wreaths with around 200 guests. Massanutten Military Academy showed up with a bus load of their cadets and the press wanted to cover them instead of the Civil Air Patrol cadets, and we had to point the press in the right direction. The Color Guard did a good job and LTC Duke Stanton did an outstanding job as the MC for the event. Major CJ Muncy was the event coordinator and had a hard task as people cancelled just minutes prior to the event and the Army representative showed up one minute before Noon, which was more than frustrating (being Army myself, you don't want to give Army anything to have a bad name for!!!), and she did a great job. I layed the POW/MIA wreath, which was a great honor, if you are my FB friend that is my current profile picture.

Pump Scout · December 15, 2011, 12:37:24 AM

We laid wreaths at the local Korean War Memorial. A newspaper story ran the Tuesday prior that had several mentions about CAP. I'm kind of wondering if the press release was written within out squadron somewhere.

And yeah... FREEZING cold. It was somewhere in the late afternoon before I could fully feel my feet again. 40's the day before and the day after, and during the ceremony it topped out at 12 and stiff wind.