Dec 23, 2017 3 min read

CARMICHAELS – It was a cold, windy afternoon Dec. 16, but the Carmichaels Civic Club had mustered the community as it has for the last seven years, to put wreaths on the graves of veterans as part of the national Wreaths Across America day at Laurel Point Cemetery.

“I knew his troop was here putting out wreaths so we came to help,” EMS Southwest paramedic Brianna Stockett said as she helped her Tiger Scout son, Kyan Berardi-Stockett, 6, place a wreath at World War II veteran James Ditko’s grave.

Club president Andrea Semenoff was there, passing out programs and taking photos as the ceremony commenced and wreathes were placed on the military memorial to honor all branches of service. Cub Scout Troop 1262 sang patriotic songs and the members then did their part to put wreaths on graves before saying the name of the veteran out loud.

This year’s theme – Remember, Honor and Teach – was all part of the wreath-laying tradition that dates to 1992 when the Worchester Wreath Company of Harrington Maine had a surplus of wreaths and decided to take them to Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C., to decorate older war graves that received fewer visitors. A 2006 photograph of these wreath-crowned graves went viral and organizations across the nation got into the act.

By 2010, the Carmichaels Civic Club became involved and when the big trucks rumbled across America distributing thousands of wreaths that December, making their first stop in Greene County.

“This ceremony has become a favorite project for our club,” Semenoff said. “Because of the generosity of the people in Carmichaels and its neighboring communities – as well as business, church groups and many organizations – we have been able to lay a wreath on each veteran’s grave at Laurel Point Cemetery – no matter what the weather.

“My father was a Navy veteran of World Warr II and my mother was a cadet nurse, so this is one reason why remembering veterans is important to me,” she added.

Carmichaels Elementary Principal Fred Morecraft, the keynote speaker, reflected on his own “coal patch boy” heritage of sacrifice for the nation. He spoke of grandfather Christopher Jefferies who left school in the eighth grade to work on the family farm and support the family but went on to get his general equivalency diploma and rise to the “rank of master sergeant in charge of his own boating battalion” in the Philippines during World War II.

“You see, these small town boys were the heart of the military,” said Morecraft, himself an army veteran.

He added that he was thankful for the time he spent talking about military life with his grandfather “and being able to follow in his footsteps” in being able to call himself a second-generation tank commander.

“If we truly want to give meaning to the sacrifice, we can do more than honoring our veterans one day a year,” he said. “Help our wounded warriors, thank a random veteran for their service, donate to good causes, simply take time to talk to and learn from our heroes.”