Jan. 4—FAIRMONT — By all appearances, the Dec. 14 annual Wreath’s Across America Day held at Maple Grove Cemetery was its usual resplendent event, carefully organized by Marcella Yaremchuk who served as master of ceremonies.
However, lack of outside documentation now challenges Yaremchuk’s ability to receive help organizing next year’s ceremony. Only one television station showed up to witness the event, and without evidence that the ceremony went off as prescribed by the national Wreaths Across America organization, Yaremchuk won’t receive matching funds to help cover the cost of putting on the event.
“Anybody who watches television knows that the money they gave for the wreaths really did buy the wreaths,” Yaremchuk said. “The ceremony really did happen. But not everybody watches channel 12. Some people don’t even have cable TV to get local stations anymore. They livestream this and Roku that. So I was hoping we could get the information out there in the newspaper about the ceremony and let people know it will happen again with their help.”
Maple Grove Cemetery is the final resting place for 342 veterans dating as far back as the American Revolution, which translates into the need to purchase 342 wreaths each year for Wreaths Across America Day where a wreath is placed on each grave. Each wreath costs $17. Until Jan. 14, Wreaths Across America is offering to match each donation, meaning until then, every $17 any individual donates buys two wreaths. Yaremchuk doesn’t expect to cover all 342 wreaths from here till then, but whatever start she can get during this period will help later in the year.
The ceremony takes place as part of a simultaneous national event. Fairmont’s event joined 4,600 other locations in the U.S. and around the world all celebrating the same event. In 2008, Congress approved Wreaths Across America Day as a way to publicly state veterans are not forgotten during the holidays.
“Remember the fallen, Honor those who serve, and Teach the next generation the value of freedom,” states the nonprofit’s mission statement.
Fairmont’s 342 wreaths joined the more than 2 million wreaths that are placed on the headstones of veterans across the country. As part of the ceremony’s procedure, volunteers are asked to say a veteran’s name and thank them for their service as they place the wreath. Yaremchuk said the national organization sends her exactly what volunteers need to say and in what order to place the wreaths.
“It’s very important we recognize the people that help keep this country free and we intend to make sure we honor those people that we know worked so hard in the past,” volunteer Dave Burns, 83, told the Times West Virginian on Dec. 10. “So many of them come back from war and had disabilities, so we just want to make sure the public recognizes and remembers what made this country great.”
Mayor Anne Bolyard gave the ceremony’s opening remarks. She said it’s important to her as Mayor and a council member to honor all who have served, as well as to honor their heritage and legacy of service to the country.
“It’s an important fundraising,” she said. “It’s meaningful in that it is recognizing the sacrifice of those that have served our country as veterans. So that’s not something that any government agency can support directly, and it also gives the opportunity for community, whether they’re family members or neighbors, to be a part and be invited to invest and be a part of that fundraising effort.”
Yaremchuk said there were representatives from the City who came to pay respects, and the East Fairmont High Choir came out and sang. The Boy Scouts served as the honor guard. Yaremchuk pointed out the cemetery is older than West Virginia itself, and has veterans from the foundational wars of the United States. Forgetting those soldiers would be a tragedy, she said.
“These veterans deserve to be remembered forever,” she said. “Some of them were from clear back in the Spanish-American War, the Revolutionary War — in our own cemetery we have every war represented clear back from the Revolutionary War. Before the United States was even the United States. We have Civil War soldiers buried in our cemetery. They deserve to not be forgotten.”
Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com