Wreaths Across America started with the heart of a 12 year old boy and has grown into a nationwide passion to remember, honor, and teach. Young Morrill Worcester (that once 12 year old boy) grew to be a successful business owner of Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington Maine. Remembering his trip to Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) as a youngster, in 1992 he decided to donate wreaths at Christma
s to honor them. His passion quickly spread amongst Americans who shared the same vision and has continued and is now done across the nation on a Saturday in December and is known as Wreaths Across America Day! In December 2019 when the Boy Scouts of Troop 120 volunteered at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, a new vision would be born. We have over 1,500 veterans located right here in our hometown of Shippensburg, so could we bring WAA here? Looking for an Eagle Scout project idea, Peter Massara listened to the concept and began thinking. Traditionally Eagle Scout projects consist of building or constructing something, all of which bring value to the community. This project is building something too, building a community who honors our local veterans each December as part of WAA. Peter was more than willing to take this on, and he did just that! There was a lot of phone calls, meetings, designing, and planning that went into making today possible and it all started with preparing a proposal for the Council to approve his concept. Once he had the approval, it was time to seek sponsors for the veterans’ wreaths. In the meantime, he began writing the ceremony that would kick off the day of honor. Thanks to you, our family, friends and the community, there were over 700 wreaths sponsored in this first year! The tractor trailer arrived on Wednesday morning, courtesy of NC Hunt Lumber (Maine) who donated the use of their tractor and trailer, and the driver who volunteered his time to drive them here. Then on December 19th, 2020 at noon, the same exact moment at over 2,500 cemeteries nationwide, Peter welcomed the community to the first Wreaths Across America ceremony at Spring Hill Cemetery, Shippensburg! This is the first cemetery in Franklin County, second in Cumberland County (because part of the cemetery is in each county), and 159th in the state! Thank you to Mr. Guy Haslett, Commander of American Legion Post 223 and Mayor Kathy Coy for joining us and sharing what it means to you to have this tribute take place. After the opening ceremony, volunteers began row by row, one wreath at a time, saying the veteran’s name aloud and placing a wreath for them. The Scouts had went through and placed small US flags at 700 veterans locations, however the snow covered up the flags. So the day before and early that morning, the Scouts and several volunteers gathered to help shovel snow and uncover the veteran’s grave markers in preparation for the wreath laying. They were able to find three-fourths of them and successfully lay their wreaths. The following Wednesday, scouts and volunteers returned and placed the remaining 200 for those veterans. Peter’s Eagle Scout project was not traditional, but it was most certainly the ‘building’ of an honorable annual tradition. Please mark your calendars for December 18, 2021 to join us for this year’s WAA Day! A note of history: the first soldier of Shippensburg to give his life for world peace was Private First Class William C. Ashwell, Battery “G” 7th Reg., C.A.C. on January 10, 1918 at the age of 21. He was the first man in the regiment to die while they were in France. He was survived by his mother, one brother and three sisters. You can read more about him here... https://www.findagrave.com/.../8821.../william-cloyd-ashwell
