Volunteers will once again lay wreaths on veteran graves at the Wilson-Chapel Cemetery in Lowry Crossing Saturday, Dec. 16 at 11 a.m.  File art

For the sixth December in a row, Linda Hamlin Dillard is waiting anxiously for a truckload of fresh evergreen wreaths to honor veterans buried in Lowry Crossing’s Wilson Chapel Cemetery.

Then, at 11 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 16, Dillard and 2 million other volunteers will place wreaths at more than 4,000 locations supporters in all 50 states and abroad.

For 32 years, the nonprofit Wreaths Across America has facilitated wreath-laying ceremonies to remember, honor and teach about our service veterans. 

The program was started by Morrill Worcester of Washington County, Maine. According to recent tax filings, his Worcester Resources, doing business as Worcester Wreath Company, is paid more than $20 million per year for the wreaths, sold to donors for $17 apiece. 

Dillard, chaplain of the John. F. Greer Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is location coordinator for Wilson Chapel Cemetery, which has 234 veterans interred there. 

Veterans who attend the ceremony place the wreaths on the easels at the front of the chapel during the ceremony, she said. 

“This is the most emotional part of the service in my opinion as they salute the wreath after it is placed on the easel.”

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