This Saturday, volunteers will lay wreaths on the graves of 157 veterans. Organizer Don Crouse of Bruceville says the ceremony is part of the National Wreaths Across America Day. Crouse and his wife Cindy were inspired to start a local chapter after taking part in a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. He says the tradition started 23-years ago when a manufacturer in Maine didn’t know what to do with his leftover Christmas Wreaths. He eventually ended up donating the wreaths to the Arlington National Cemetery. Since then Crouse says the tradition has grown and it’s one he hopes to expand here in Knox County. He says they needed 16-hundred dollars to cover every Veterans grave. To date the group has collected 26-hundred dollars.
Weather Permitting, Crouse says a group of veterans called the Patriot Riders will lead volunteers from the Washington Township fire house in Bruceville to the cemetery starting at 11:30 a.m. There will be a ceremony held at the graveyard and afterwards family, friends along with members from the Boy Scouts will lay the 157 wreaths on the Veterans graves. Crouse says one wreath will be taken to Freelandville to be placed on the grave of a Veteran there.