Cornwall community participated in Wreaths Across America
The tradition of laying wreaths to honor veterans began in 1992, when Morrill Worcester, the owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, had extra wreaths at the close of the holiday season. Worcester remembered a boyhood trip to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. and decided to donate 5,000 wreaths to be placed on the headstones of an older section of the cemetery.
By 2014, Wreaths Across America and its national network of volunteers laid over 700,000 memorial wreaths at 1,000 locations in the United States and beyond, including ceremonies at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and the sites of the September 11th tragedies.
***********
On Saturday, at noon, in Cornwall, several hundred community members — many of them children — gathered at St. Thomas of Canterbury Cemetery to join the national mission to place wreaths on graves of veterans buried there. 371 wreaths — one for every veteran — were purchased by community members, businesses and organizations for the cemetery. This was the fifth year that St. Thomas Cemetery has been enrolled in the program — Lisa Favino chaired it the first four years.
The half-hour ceremony before the placing of the wreaths was organized by Cornwall’s Melanie Larkin, with help from Eric Lundgren. Cornwall-on-Hudson Mayor James served as master of ceremony, and a contingent of Newburgh Free Academy JROTC cadets, band students from the Cornwall Middle School, and Cornwall Boy and Girl Scouts were among those who participated. Taps was played at the end by Dean Aulogia.
And that thrilled Gagliano who, several times, reiterated the importance of the multi-generational effort.
“The mission of Wreaths Across America is to ‘Remember the fallen. Honor those who serve. And teach the next generation the value of freedom.”
Gagliano called the ceremony “important”.
“Thank you for coming out,” he said. “This is important.
If we lose this, and we forget the men and women who have served our country since our founding, and paid a price in blood, we’re no longer a representative republic. Demo-cracies are fragile, and we’re blessed to live in the greatest one in the history of the world.”
As the ceremony went on, a flag ceremony was carried on by the JROTC cadets, and the National Anthem was performed.
Deacon Anthony Ferraiuolo, from St. Marianne Cope Parish in Cornwall-on-Hudson, blessed one of the wreaths that was to be placed.
“As we place these wreaths, we ask you to pray for these veterans, all who gave time from their lives to protect our country,” he prayed. “We bless them, and we pray for them.”
Then, eight cadets individually placed wreaths, and saluted them, at the veterans monument in the cemetery. A wreath was laid for each branch of the service — Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Space Force, Merchant Marines — and then the final wreath was placed in honor of those men and women who fall in the MIA/POW category.
“These individuals have yet to return to their families and homes,” Gagliano, visibly moved, said.
At the end of the formal part of the event, Larkin also thanked all in attendance for coming. Then, dozens of people spread out into the cemetery to place wreaths on graves that had been previously marked by a committee of volunteers. At each grave the person placing the wreath was asked to say the name of the veteran aloud, as a tribute to them and their service to the country.
Gagliano said “Take a moment to thank them and their family for their service. It’s a small, tiny act, that goes a long way to keep the memory of our veterans and service-fallen alive.”
With so many hands to do the work, the actual placing of the wreaths took less time than the ceremony.
