Still Time to Order Veterans Wreaths for Windsor's Wreaths Across America Ceremony

Carmon Community Funeral Homes of Windsor, with the assistance of Windsor’s American Legion Gray-Dickenson Post #59, will host the 16th annual Wreaths Across America wreath-laying ceremony on Saturday, December 13th at 12 p.m. at the Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery on East Street. Everyone is invited to attend this special event on the same day as over 5,200 similar wreath-laying ceremonies will be held across the U.S., at sea and abroad.

There still is time to order a wreath to be placed during the ceremony.

Wreaths to be placed during the ceremony are $17 apiece and can be ordered now – they can be laid on the grave of a specific veteran or be placed throughout the Windsor veterans cemetery to honor other veterans buried there. Last year, 1,300 wreaths were placed there in a single day by veterans’ families and by volunteers from the Windsor Scouts Troops 149 and 1149, the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department, Kaman Aerospace Corp., and Amazon.

To order a wreath for placement on the grave of a specific veteran in the Windsor veterans cemetery, people must contact Carmon Community Funeral Homes directly with that veteran’s name by December 8. Note that if a wreath is ordered from any source other than directly from the funeral home or the National Wreaths Across America website, there is no guarantee that it will be placed on your veteran’s grave. Checks should be made out to: Carmon Community Funeral Homes and either brought to Carmon Funeral Home at 807 Bloomfield Avenue in Windsor, or mailed to:

Carmon Community Funeral Homes, Attn: Wreaths Across America, P.O. Box 6, Windsor CT 06095.

Email questions to LCarmon@carmonfh.com.

Wreaths to be laid on the graves of other veterans buried in Windsor’s veterans cemetery during the ceremony can be ordered at $17 apiece.

Order/pay by cash or check at Carmon Community Funeral Homes, phone 860-688-2200.

Deadline is December 8. Email questions to LCarmon@carmonfh.com. Checks should be made out to: Carmon Community Funeral Homes and either brought to Carmon Funeral Home at 807 Bloomfield Avenue in Windsor, or mailed to:

Carmon Community Funeral Homes, Attn: Wreaths Across America, P.O. Box 6, Windsor CT 06095.

"Everyone is welcome to attend this year's annual ceremony in the Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery that will feature a color guard, playing of Taps and readings by local clergy and veterans, to be followed by the ceremonial laying of hundreds and hundreds of wreaths,” explains John C. Carmon, whose father, World War II veteran Frank W. Carmon Jr., founded the funeral 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 16 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 Scout 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 7,400 sponsorship groups across the U.S., representing more than 5,200 locations 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 13th. 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. Visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org

Carmon Community Funeral Homes is a 79-year-old Windsor-based family-owned firm with nine locations in North Central Connecticut: Avon; Granby; Hartford; Rockville; South Windsor; Suffield; Vernon; and Windsor (three locations including The Lodge in Windsor), and its own on-site Mount Laurel Crematory. Visit www.CarmonFuneralHome.com or call 860-688-2200.