Vets to get colorful thanks

SUFFOLK

As Hampton Roads pauses Tuesday to thank their military veterans, a plan is underway to extend that gratitude and honor into the holiday season. Volunteers across the area hope to place a fresh evergreen wreath with one red bow on each grave in the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery in a Dec. 13 ceremony.

It's a vision inspired by Arlington National Cemetery, where since 1992 5,000 wreathes donated from the Worcester Wreath Co. have been placed on veterans' headstones each December.

As the tradition spread across the country, the nonprofit agency Wreaths Across America was founded in 2007 to raise funds and sponsor similar programs in 200 state and national veterans cemeteries.

Spreading locally

"Arlington National Cemetery looks so beautiful with green wreaths on every grave," said Jeanne Banks, who is heading up the Suffolk effort to place wreaths on veterans' headstones.

Now a Suffolk resident, Banks lived in Washington with her husband, John, a retired Army chaplain, who was stationed there at the time.

In January, Banks met with Dan Kemano, Virginia veterans cemeteries director, hoping to create a similarly stunning display of honor at Horton cemetery. Kemano connected Banks with Dassa Carvey, the Virginia Beach Navy veteran who was recently installed as the national president of WAVES. Carvey was also interested in expanding the wreath-laying ceremonies that the Civil Air Patrol sponsored for the past two years at the cemetery.

Carvey is the founder of the Tidewater Tidal WAVES, a chapter of the national organization of women from the Navy, Navy Nurse Corps, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and their reserve components. After attending the Suffolk cemetery's wreath-laying ceremony last year, where only six wreathes representing the five military services and POW's were donated, Carvey vowed to help make this year's ceremony a bigger, wider-reaching tribute.

Get involved

Banks, Carvey and a handful of other local volunteers are soliciting contributions.

Carvey is working with veterans organizations, as well as Boy and Girl Scouts to gather volunteers to lay the wreaths before the ceremony. During the ceremony, active-duty military personnel will lay wreaths on the final row of graves - including the grave of Albert G. Horton Jr., the Navy senior chief for whom the cemetery is named.

Kemano estimates that 2,000 wreathes will be needed to honor the veterans in the cemetery, which is the only state veterans cemetery in Hampton Roads.

Live wreaths were the only option, Banks said, after considering artificial greens that fade year to year and require storage.

Ray Bennett, owner of Ray's Florist on North Main Street, volunteered to provide the wreaths at cost, but that adds up to at least $10,000 that the group must raise.

Although the wreaths come pre-made, Bennett still has to make the weatherproof, velvet bows.

"I go home every night and make bows," he said. "I have boxes of them around the house."

Bennett's support also is personal. Both his grandfathers were Navy veterans and are buried in a veterans cemetery in New Bern, N.C. His father, also a Navy veteran, plans to be buried in Suffolk's Horton cemetery.

Kemano appreciates the Civil Air Patrol's sponsorship of the ceremonies of the past two years and hopes the new efforts will build on that success.

Banks agrees.

"When I was growing up in Portsmouth during World War II, my dad worked in the Navy yard and every night we prayed for the soldiers and sailors," she said. "The wreaths will show love and respect for our country and our veterans."

Phyllis Speidell, (757) 222-5556 or phyllis.speidell@pilotonline.com