All Invited to Saturday, Dec. 17 Windsor Wreaths Across America Event

Carmon Community Funeral Homes of Windsor will host its annual Wreaths Across America wreath-laying ceremony this Saturday, December 17th at 12 p.m. at the Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery on East St. in Windsor. Everyone is invited to attend this special event on the same day that over 2,600 similar wreath-laying ceremonies to be held across the U.S., at sea and abroad.

“This year’s annual ceremony in the Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery will feature a color guard, playing of Taps and readings by members of local clergy and veterans, to be followed by the ceremonial placing of more than 800 wreaths by local Boy Scouts, the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department, and volunteers from Kaman Aerospace Corporation,” explains John C. Carmon, whose father, World War II veteran Frank W. Carmon Jr., founded the firm. “My father received three Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Cross, among other decorations, during World War II, and this annual project is a way of remembering him and all U.S. veterans. The Carmon family and staff are pleased to again join Wreaths Across America to honor their lives and their service.”

Windsor’s annual Wreaths Across America ceremony program began 13 years ago when the national organization reached out to the Hispanic-American Veterans of Connecticut, Inc. (HAVOCT). Carmon Community Funeral Homes, Windsor American Legion Post #59, and community groups, including local Boy Scouts of America troops, then joined them and the event in the Windsor Veterans Memorial Ceremony has grown larger every year since.

Wreaths Across America, a national nonprofit organization, was founded in 2007 to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery that was started more than two decades ago by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester. In 1992, Worcester and his company, Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Me., donated the first wreaths, numbering just 5,000, and all were placed at the national cemetery. The Wreaths Across America project has since expanded to include more than 3,000 local fundraising groups in all 50 states, representing more than 3,400 sites including cemeteries, military memorials and other locations, along with the nation’s cemetery in Arlington, Va., and at national veterans’ cemeteries on foreign soil. In 2008, Congress issued a proclamation officially recognizing “Wreaths Across America Day” each December, this year on December 17th. The organization’s mission, Remember, Honor, Teach, is carried out in part by coordinating these numerous wreath-laying ceremonies, and is committed to teaching younger generations about the value of their freedoms and the importance of honoring those who sacrificed so much to protect those freedoms.

For more information about this Saturday, December 17’s Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery’s Wreaths Across America ceremony, contact Carmon Community Funeral Homes at 860-688-2200 or LCarmon@carmonfh.com.

Carmon Community Funeral Homes is a 76-year-old Windsor-based family-owned firm with nine locations in North Central Connecticut: Avon; Granby; Hartford; Rockville; South Windsor; Suffield; Vernon; and Windsor (two locations), and its own on-site Mount Laurel Crematory. Visit www.CarmonFuneralHome.com or call 860-688-2200.