How You Can Help Honor an Idaho Veteran at Christmas

I first heard about Wreaths Across America from friends.  They had been involved from the earliest days of the project.  My friends had been part of an effort to decorate graves at Arlington National Cemetery for Christmas.  Then they brought their efforts closer to home.  The project now spans the country.  There have been two cemeteries participating in Southern Idaho.  This year there will be four.

Cemeteries in Filer and Buhl have more than 1,100 combined veteran burials.  Many of these graves are no longer looked after by family.  Children move away, spouses pass and a time comes when nobody has a personal memory of the veteran occupying the ground.  The cemetery in Filer is even home to a Civil War veteran.

The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is working with the cemetery district to place Christmas wreaths at all 1,100 graves.  This is a huge undertaking and time is growing short.

Wreaths cost just $15 each.  You can purchase several.  Truck drivers distribute them where needed, often on donated trucks and fuel.  The deadline for ordering a wreath is November 22^nd.  You can buy for a family member, a friend, or as a way of saying thank you to someone you never met.

For more details please click here.

Wreaths Across America gets plenty of media coverage at Arlington but got started far away.  In Maine, almost 30 years ago.  A local man found he had 5,000 wreaths as his Christmas sales ended.  He came upon the idea of decorating the graves of servicemen and women.

Never forget.