Remembering and honoring our veterans’ focus of annual wreath-laying event

ST. GEORGE — Hundreds of people gathered at the Tonaquint Cemetery in St. George on a chilly Saturday morning to remember and honor veterans with wreaths placed at their graves.

Active and retired soldiers, ROTC, civic leaders and volunteers placed wreaths on the graves of veteran soldiers as a part of the annual Wreaths Across America event held in St. George and across the nation, St. George, Utah, Dec. 14, 2019 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

During a brief ceremony held in the cemetery where the flags of the each branch of the armed forces flew beneath the United States flag, students from Tuacahn High School sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and words were offered honoring those who served and the need to remember their sacrifice.

Veterans of wars and conflicts old and recent were present at the event, as were soldiers currently serving and local ROTC cadets who, along with members of the public, began to grab wreaths from waiting boxes. They then spread across the cemetery and placed wreaths wherever they found a small red flag planted that marked a veterans’ the grave site.

“We are remembering and honoring our veterans and teaching our children, hopefully, the value of freedom,” said Valerie King of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. “Hopefully (the children) walked away with a greater appreciation for what the word veteran means.”

The Tonaquint Cemetery is one of 1,600 locations across the nation and abroad where wreaths are laid at the graves of American soldiers, King said, adding the estimated total of wreaths being placed this year to be around 2.5 million. Nearly 2,300 of those are being placed in Washington County at 14 different locations.

Once wreaths covered Tonaquint Cemetery, a procession of vehicles carrying more wreaths was escorted to the St. George Cemetery by a mix of St. George Police motor officers and Patriot Guard Riders.

No ceremony was held at the St. George Cemetery as active duty soldiers, cadets, veterans, their families and others got to work placing wreaths at marked graves.

Some of the grave markers noted the conflicts the buried veteran had participated in, from the Spanish-American War to the World Wars and others.

Active and retired soldiers, ROTC, civic leaders and volunteers placed wreaths on the graves of veteran soldiers as a part of the annual Wreaths Across America event held in St. George and across the nation, St. George, Utah, Dec. 14, 2019 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

“It’s good to take a moment and think back on these family members of ours, ancestors who have served, and have given their lives – in many cases sooner than they’d like – in the service of their county,” St. George Mayor Jon Pike said.

As wreaths were laid at grave site after grave site, one of the cadets involved gave a salute as he looked down at one of the gravestones.

“I think its a good opportunity to remember our veterans on the holiday,” Pike said.

A private wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Shivwits Cemetery Saturday afternoon. While another was held in Enoch for the first time.

Wreaths Across America is a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 to continue and expand the work of Maine businessman Morrill Worcestor, who created the wreath-laying ceremony at the Arlington Cemetery in 1992.

In additional to honoring veteran graves, Wreaths Across America also aims to teach “younger generations about the value of their freedoms and the importance of honoring those who sacrificed so much to protect those freedoms,” as stated on nonprofit’s website.

The millionth wreath at Arlington was laid in 2012, with the practice expanding oversees to the Normandy-American Cemetery in France in 2018.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2019, all rights reserved.

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