Volunteers to decorate veterans’ graves

Hundreds of Wreaths Across America volunteers from Pearl Harbor to Valley Forge work year-round to ensure that military laid to rest are remembered, their families and living veterans are honored, and the next generation is taught the value of freedom. On Saturday, Dec. 17, the Wreaths Across America organization, The Shreveport Garden Study Club, The Colonial Dames of America and Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation will host the second Wreaths Across America celebration at the historic Greenwood Cemetery at 130 East Stoner Ave. beginning at 11 a.m.

From the Revolutionary War to presentday conflicts, our veterans are devoted sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers. They come from all backgrounds in life to place those lives on the line for our freedoms. We honor them with Veterans’ Day in the fall and Memorial Day in the spring, but our service members sacrifice their time and safety every single day of the year to preserve our freedoms. Wreaths Across America want to remember and honor and teach a new generation the importance of what our veterans do.

Shreveport/Bossier City and Louisiana are well aware of our veterans and their families’ sacrifice to maintain our freedom as United States citizens. With Barksdale Air Force Base as home to Air Force Global Strike Command, the 8th Air Force and the 2nd Bomb Wing, along with Fort Johnson Army Base in Leesville (formerly Fort Polk) and the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, our communities value the hard work and commitment of our service members.

In the first year of Wreaths Across America at Greenwood Cemetery, 905 wreaths were sponsored by regional families, including one placed at the grave of a veteran by a young man named after his dad’s best friend who served in Iraq with his father and who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

“Sponsoring a wreath plays an important part in recognizing those upon whose shoulders we stand as Americans today,” said Susan Cage, Shreveport Garden Study Club head Wreaths Across America volunteer. “It says, ‘I am honoring those who have given so much,’ I like to think of Sir Winston Churchill’s quote, ‘You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give’,” adds Cage. The last day to sponsor a wreath was Nov. 25.

All local branches of the services will participate in the Dec. 17 event and will lay a Ceremonial Wreath on the grave of one of the more than 840 veterans buried in the military section at Greenwood Cemetery. Barksdale’s 2nd Bomb Wing Commander, Col. Joe McKenna, will give the military address. The Barksdale Honor Guard, Fairfield Elementary Magnet School and Walnut Hill’s Honor Society will open the ceremony. Barksdale Forward President Murray Viser will serve as master of ceremonies. Susan Cage, Susan Adams, Rebecca

Miller and Karen Murphy will represent The Shreveport Garden and Study Club as community volunteers organizing the event.

Wreath’s Across America’s mission – “Remember, Honor, Teach” – is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states.