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Homewood Wreaths Across America honors veterans at Mount Olivet Cemetery

Frederick News-Post - 11/25/2020

Nov. 25--On Dec.19, volunteers will walk among the headstones at Mount Olivet Cemetery, placing wreaths on the graves of veterans.

Homewood Wreaths Across America is one of the groups partnering with Mount Olivet to help honor veterans. The group surpassed it fundraising goal by early November, as 708 wreaths were sponsored by Nov. 5.

"Those of us probably who are seniors have seen more war than a lot of other people," said Sue Chapin, a resident at Homewood at Frederick who co-chairs the Homewood Wreaths Across America committee with Libby Fuss.

"I think it's just important to honor our people who served in our military, no matter when, no matter whether they're alive or whether they've passed away," she said.

Wreaths Across America is a national nonprofit organization that aims to "remember the men and women who served our country, honor our military and their families, and teach our children about our freedom and those who protect it."

Each December on National Wreaths Across America Day, the nonprofit coordinates wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as at more than 2,100 additional locations in all 50 states, at sea and abroad, according to its website.

Chapin said the Wreaths Across America program at Homewood is in its third year.

"It was started by the Homewood Auxiliary in 2018. It is not sponsored by the auxiliary now ... but they were the ones that got it started," she said.

It almost didn't happen this year, but Chapin said she felt it was important, in part because her husband served in the military, so Homewood residents pulled a committee together.

Each wreath costs $15, $10 of which goes to Wreaths Across America and $5 of which goes to Homewood to benefit its healthcare center. Fundraising began in September, Chapin said.

Last year, Chapin was a volunteer and said that the day was cold and wet. This year, she's hoping for a better forecast.

Seeing the wreath goal be surpassed was extremely exciting, she said.

"We did almost everything, of course, by email and virtually and our first goal was 450 wreaths ... because we thought the pandemic might have some kind of a negative effect. But I think it actually has enhanced us because more people are paying attention," she said.

Jim Hubbard is a resident at Homewood and served in the U.S. army between 1959 and 1962.

He and his wife Sherry have volunteered with Homewood Wreaths Across America in the past, and while he, too, is hoping for better weather this year, Hubbard said it's a worthwhile experience regardless.

"It's a nice feeling," he said. "The fact that we're acknowledging, if you will, at least the memories of the individuals who have gone before who have, in many cases, sacrificed mightily to kind of preserve our society and our way of life [is] a very compelling link to the past."

Honoring veterans by placing wreaths on their graves is important, Hubbard said, because "the United States has been involved in a great many situations internationally in which individuals who don't necessarily want to go to war were, in a sense, forced to by the international situation."

This disrupted their lives and the lives of their loved ones, magnifying the sacrifice and contributions they made, he said.

"So we're basically in kind of a strange sense, we're saying to them, that is to say to their memory, 'We appreciate what you did and we want to honor you in this way,'" Hubbard said.

Hubbard said he feels that there are an awful lot of younger people who aren't necessarily sensitive to what has gone on before and lack historical perspective.

So, volunteering with Wreaths Across America is also something he would recommend to others, particularly parents of young children.

"If the parents want to try to sensitize the kids to what has gone on in the past so at least they could understand what their grandparents and great grandparents and so forth participated in and sacrificed ..." he said.

"And, of course, additionally there are teachers and big brothers and big sisters and members of service organizations who work with kids who additionally have the opportunity to kind of reinforce that understanding and that bond with the past."

For more information about Wreaths Across America, visit wreathsacrossamerica.org.

Follow Hannah Himes on Twitter: @hannah_himes

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