A Beautiful New Holiday Tradition...

[Lord Jim]

At least new to me; apparently it's been a national day since 2008:

This Weekend, 1.8 Million Wreaths Will Be Laid to Honor U.S. Veterans

The foundation Wreaths Across America will coordinate wreath­-laying ceremonies at 1,640 locations across the United States, at sea and abroad.

By Eleanor Hildebrandt
Dec 14, 2018


Above, Arlington National Cemetery during the 2016 Wreaths Across America Day.

This Saturday, December 15, is National Wreaths Across America Memorial Day, when hundreds of thousands of holiday wreaths are laid in tribute to U.S. veterans. This year, more than 1.8 million wreaths will be placed by two million volunteers at 1,640 locations worldwide. According to Amber Caron, WAA's director of communications, children accounted for nearly one-third of the volunteers last year.

Per the organization's website, the tradition started in 1992 when Morrill Worcester, the owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, made arrangements to take a surplus of wreaths his company left over after the holiday season and lay them on the headstones in an older, less-visited section of Arlington National Cemetery. A local trucking company donated transportation services, and volunteers helped place the wreaths.

The tradition continued quietly for years, until a photo of Arlington decorated with the wreaths went viral in 2005. The Worcester family was subsequently inundated with requests from Americans across the country to participate in the tribute. In 2007, they helped form the Wreaths Across America nonprofit, and the scope of the project expanded considerably. The next year, Congress unanimously voted to designate December 13, 2008 as “Wreaths Across America Day.”

Tomorrow, Steve Schildhauer of Sidney, Neb.—a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Army—will drive the Honor Truck carrying a load of fresh balsam wreaths from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery as part of the Annual Wreath Escort. Ceremonies will also take place at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, as well as Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and the sites of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Wreath sponsorship is open year-round. Although this year's wreaths have already shipped, you still can donate to next year's tribute.

tps://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a2558 ... s-america/

[Bicycle Bill]

Now watch those assholes from the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Fruitcake Factory get all bent out of shape and start one of their patented pissing matches over this.

-"BB"-

[Joe Guy]

I don't think there's anything religious about holiday wreaths. There might be some type of 'Freedom from Wreath' organization out there, however.

[Lord Jim]

I don't think there's anything religious about holiday wreaths.

I believe that like the Christmas tree, the Christmas wreath is something that was borrowed from the pagan Solstice traditions...

They certainly weren't around at the time of Christ...

Also Wreaths Across America is a private organization, funded by private donations, so I don't think the radical anti-religionists would have much of a leg to stand on...

Of course military cemeteries are government property, so I'm surprised they haven't been bitching for years about all the Christian crosses and Stars of David, (and Muslim crescents) on the tombstones...

[RayThom]

History of the Wreath. You be the judge.

https://www.proflowers.com/blog/history-of-the-wreath
PAGAN:

CHRISTIAN:

[BoSoxGal]

At least new to me; apparently it's been a national day since 2008:

This Weekend, 1.8 Million Wreaths Will Be Laid to Honor U.S. Veterans

The foundation Wreaths Across America will coordinate wreath­-laying ceremonies at 1,640 locations across the United States, at sea and abroad.

By Eleanor Hildebrandt
Dec 14, 2018


Above, Arlington National Cemetery during the 2016 Wreaths Across America Day.

This Saturday, December 15, is National Wreaths Across America Memorial Day, when hundreds of thousands of holiday wreaths are laid in tribute to U.S. veterans. This year, more than 1.8 million wreaths will be placed by two million volunteers at 1,640 locations worldwide. According to Amber Caron, WAA's director of communications, children accounted for nearly one-third of the volunteers last year.

Per the organization's website, the tradition started in 1992 when Morrill Worcester, the owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, made arrangements to take a surplus of wreaths his company left over after the holiday season and lay them on the headstones in an older, less-visited section of Arlington National Cemetery. A local trucking company donated transportation services, and volunteers helped place the wreaths.

The tradition continued quietly for years, until a photo of Arlington decorated with the wreaths went viral in 2005. The Worcester family was subsequently inundated with requests from Americans across the country to participate in the tribute. In 2007, they helped form the Wreaths Across America nonprofit, and the scope of the project expanded considerably. The next year, Congress unanimously voted to designate December 13, 2008 as “Wreaths Across America Day.”

Tomorrow, Steve Schildhauer of Sidney, Neb.—a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Army—will drive the Honor Truck carrying a load of fresh balsam wreaths from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery as part of the Annual Wreath Escort. Ceremonies will also take place at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, as well as Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and the sites of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Wreath sponsorship is open year-round. Although this year's wreaths have already shipped, you still can donate to next year's tribute.

tps://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a2558 ... s-america/

The sentiment behind this is laudable, but there are serious concerns about the nonprofit organization Wreaths Across America, which is run by the same family who own and operate the for profit Worcester Wreath Co. in Harrington, Maine - not far from my old home in Maine. The company is also under fire for mistreatment of seasonal wreathmakers, many of whom are undocumented aliens - and believe me when I say there are plenty of unemployed American citizens in Washington County, Maine who could really use a seasonal wreathmaking job. (I made wreaths the first holiday season I lived in Maine, many years ago - I was friends with a smaller family wreathmaking biz in Eastbrook, Maine, a few dozen miles down the road from Harrington. It’s hard work but plenty of legal Mainers do it every year.)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.co ... 1450740374

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bangordail ... ces/%3Famp

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/12/20/ ... ssed-them/

[Lord Jim]

Thanks for posting that BSG; sometimes back stories take some of the shine off a "feel good" story, but they are what they are...

I can't speak to the labor issues you mention, but FWIW, it looks like the charity is making an effort to be transparent (though it's probably not a coincidence that the WSJ article appeared in 2015 and all the measures they mention they put in place...like an independent annual audit...started in 2016) regarding their financials and relationship with the for-profit company...

Unless they are lying about the numbers (and/or the wreath quality), it looks like the wreath company is providing the wreaths at below wholesale market rates, and the operating expense rate for the charity looks reasonable:

https://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/financials

[BoSoxGal]

I'm not entirely against Worcester Wreath, and I laud the fact that they donated the wreaths for years - on a smaller scale - before the charity got going and there was any income for the Arlington wreaths.

I'm more bothered by the unfair labor practices; Maine has a real issue with mistreatment of migrant labor, in wreath-making, logging, blueberry picking and the egg industry, among others. Of course these companies hire migrants because they are easier to exploit and mistreat - and it really bothers me because Washington County is one of the poorest in the country, so there are plenty of legal Americans who could use those jobs but who would undoubtedly expect fair labor practices from the employers. Raking wild blueberries is very hard work, but most folks of my generation grew up doing it and I'm sure many of the younger generation too - so I don't think it's entirely an issue of inability to get legal labor - though I imagine that's probably what the employers claim.

I guess it does bother me that ALL of the donations to Wreaths Across America go to Worcester Wreath, while several other wreath manufacturers in Maine are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy or closing altogether. This has to do with shitty changes to shipping costs, but if they had a piece of the WAA business, they might survive - since those wreaths are shipped by truck via donated transport. Here's an article about the struggling wreath industry in Maine:

https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/12/08 ... hallenges/

I think it's absurd the changes that have taken place in shipping; I experienced in myself the last time I moved and shipped most of my possessions via USPS ground rate. I'd done that several times before and this last time was the first time that I had to avoid using any larger boxes, which I had used in the past and filled with lighter items like pillows, comforters, etc. so the boxes didn't weigh much - but they were big. Now there is a penalty surcharge for bigger boxes like that, and it applies to wreath companies in a painful way - a Xmas wreath doesn't weigh much, but is fairly large when boxed. I'm sad about these changes because I used to order my wreaths every year - and when I was flush I gifted them to friends and family too - from small Maine wreath companies, but now it's too costly and I have to buy them locally. Most of the local ones seem to be product of Canada; nothing against Canada but it's not Maine and I'm sorry not to be able to support small Maine businesses.