Wreaths Across America

By STEPHEN THOMAS Houston Community Newspapers President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 stood on a portion of a battlefield that would be consecrated as the final resting place of the honored dead. He said that although the world will not remember what was said there, it would never forget the Supreme Sacrifices that inspired the event. Wreaths Across America is a nonprofit, the efforts of which are supported by donations of time and money. The organization nationally and in this region of Texas belongs to that microcosm that shall never forget. Every Dec. 15, WAA volunteers place wreaths shipped from Maine on the graves of veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery and at national cemeteries nationwide. Wreaths Across America-Houston will carry out this annual solemn duty on this Dec. 15 as volunteers place wreaths, purchased with donations, on as many of the roughly 76,000 Houston National Cemetery graves as donations permit. Samantha Jameson, with Kingwood-based Wreaths Across America-Houston, discussed the 501(c)(3) organization as guest speaker at the Dayton Rotary Club Luncheon held Sept. 6 at the Dayton Community Center. Jameson came to talk the talk. When she left, the Dayton Rotary walked the walk right along with her, voting on the spot to donate $500 to Wreaths Across America-Houston. Welcome to Dayton. And welcome to Rotary. Tax-deductible donations of funds will supply the $15 a piece wreaths. Donations of volunteers’ time will place them where they belong 10 days before Christmas. They are retrieved in January. “It’s really a great thing, and it’s right,” said Jameson, whose husband, Michael Jameson, active-duty son, Jason Hannen, and father, Willie Perry, have worn the uniform. Jameson, the eldest daughter of Dayton Rotary Treasurer Josephine Perry, discussed the spirit of honoring troops and veterans that swept the nation following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She alluded to the salient toll that time took on the tradition — for some, but certainly not for all. And particularly not at a national cemetery. “Nine-11, everybody stood up, and we care about our country and support our military,” Jameson said. “A couple of years later, people start to forget. “You go out there, and you see mothers and fathers and grandparents and brothers and sisters standing over their graves; they don’t forget.” Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts place wreaths. So do school groups. All learn something in the process about the honor and sacrifice of the national nobility that a grateful nation identifies as a veteran. Wreath details comprised mostly of adults, including the 11 WAA-Houston volunteers and others, from civic organizations such as Rotary, set an example. WAA-Houston volunteers even spend their own money to help make the operation tick; that’s how dedicated they are. In the meantime, Jameson sets a personal goal to raise $2,000 a year. WAA Houston builds in an incentive for community organizations to make a difference. They sell the wreaths, and WAA-Houston will send each selling organization a $5 rebate for each wreath it sells. The Houston organization placed 32,000 wreaths in 2011 at Houston National Cemetery, second only to the WAA wreath laying at Arlington National Cemetery. The group here has not raised enough to decorate the graves of all 76,000 or so veterans buried at Houston National Cemetery, so it shifts from one portion of the national cemetery to another each year such that every grave is taken care of in due time. People who want to honor one or more veterans, perhaps family members, are invited to purchase wreaths to be placed on the designated graves. This year’s wreath laying will begin at 11 a.m. on Dec. 15. Help with taking care of the graves will be most appreciated. Expect to see small children and teenagers out there with you. More information about WAA-Houston is posted on the organization’s website, which is www.waahouston.com. The group’s telephone number is 281-540-9444. The 11 Houston area Wreaths Across America volunteers are doing their best to honor the memories of those who in military service to a grateful nation either sacrificed their lives or gave some of their best years; in too many cases they also left abilities on the battlefield. The wreath laying is a way in which they remember. It shows the rest of the nation, as Lincoln would have it, never to forget.