Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
WORLAND — The Wreaths Across America Mobile Education Exhibit (MEE) will be stopping in Worland as part of its 2022 tour. The stop will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 7, at North Ninth from Big Horn Ave. to Robertson (on the street adjacent to Pioneer Square).
The street will be closed during that time after action by the city council earlier this month.
The Wreaths Across America MEE is being brought to Worland by the Worland Community Center, thanks to the efforts of marketing director Sheryl Ley.
Ley said the idea to bring the Wreaths Across America MEE to Worland came from Linda Abell.
Abell said she had seen a social media post about the Wreaths Across America in Riverton and she thought if they can do that in Riverton why can’t Worland do it. She posted information about Wreaths Across America in the display case at the community center one year for Veterans Day and provided information to Ley.
“It didn’t work out due to COVID and then they were not coming to this area,” Ley said. She said this year for about three months she worked with the organization to see if Worland could be included on the stop. It did not appear to be working out and then earlier this month she received a call that if Ley was still interested they would make the Worland stop happen this year.
“I wasn’t sure I could pull it together,” Ley said, but she has and the Wreaths Across America MEE will be stopping next week.
According to the Wreaths Across America website, “Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization’s mission – Remember, Honor, Teach – is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.
“National Wreaths Across America Day is a free, non-political event, that honors and remembers our nation’s veterans who are laid to rest in 3,100+ different locations nationwide. This year, National Wreaths Across America Day will take place on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022.”
According to the website, the Mobile Education Exhibit “is a rolling interactive exhibit that Remembers the nation’s fallen veterans, Honors those who serve, and Teaches the next generation about the value of freedom.”
“The goal of the Wreaths Across America Mobile Education Exhibit is to bring communities together and teach about the organization’s mission while remembering the service and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes,” said Don Queeney, Director of Transportation, and the Mobile Education Exhibit, Wreaths Across America. “The exhibit serves as a mobile museum, educating visitors about the service and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes as well as to serve as an official ‘welcome home’ station for our nation’s Vietnam Veterans.”
In an interview Tuesday, Queeney said that 99.99% of community visits are requested by someone already involved in Wreaths Across America (WAA) but the Worland visit came from a different angle, as Worland is not currently a WAA location.
He said at the end of 2021 there were 3,157 locations that participate in the WAA program, either at a national cemetery, state cemetery, community cemetery, church yard, monument, veterans wall or other monument. He said there is likely more than that now as 700 locations were added in 2021.
He said each location is run by a volunteer, who organizes a sponsorship group to be able to purchase wreaths to honor veterans in the community.
Sponsorship groups have three programs that they can participate in, they can purchase wreaths directly, participate in a three for two program where the wreaths could be purchased at a discount and a $5 back program where Wreaths Across America will provide funding back to a sponsorship organization that will be donated to another charity of the group’s choice.
Each sponsorship goes toward a live, balsam wreath that will be placed on the headstone of an American hero on Dec. 17, 2022.
According to the website, when the MEE pulls into your area, all veterans, active-duty military, their families and the local community members are invited and encouraged to visit, take a tour and speak with WAA Ambassadors and volunteers.
The public tour stops for the MEE are free and open to the public with local COVID-19 safety procedures in place to protect the health of all visitors in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation.
Queeney said, “My thought process was this was an opportunity to bring our program to a town that knows little about us and if we are so lucky that if somebody gets inspired, then says “hey, our cemetery has veterans here, let’s do this here. If we pull out of town with that happening then it’s been a success or if we inspire one Vietnam veteran to feel better about himself when we leave, or a child to understand why adults reverend veterans, then we’ve been successful.”
There are 12 sites in Wyoming, Queeney said.
“We’re honoring veterans. We don’t just lay the wreath and walk off. We lay the wreath, say the name. It’s very rewarding,” he said.
More information can be found at http://www.wreathacrossamerica.org or stop by the mobile exhibit next Thursday.