December is a wonderful time to spend with family, reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the future. We hope your December is full of love and joy as you celebrate the holidays with loved ones and share memories of family and friends that have passed.
In this season of giving, many of us look for meaningful ways to make a difference. We’d like to mention one organization that could use your help. Wreaths Across America remembers fallen U.S. Veterans by placing honor wreaths at veteran’s headstones in more than 1700 locations in all 50 states, at sea and abroad. For more information about sponsoring a wreath, check their website. You can also donate your time by volunteering to lay wreaths on December 14th. They need individuals and groups to help with this large undertaking. Click here to search for locations near you and be sure to read more about the story behind the wreaths and how this breathtaking tradition began.
We encourage members, as well as friends and family, to get involved with this outstanding organization that honors Veterans. If you volunteer at the cemetery on December 14, take your camera or smartphone and photograph the headstones before and after laying the wreaths. Make sure that your location services are enabled. Then when you upload the headstone photo to Find a Grave, the GPS location will automatically add to the memorial page. Many veteran’s memorials include headstone photos on Find a Grave, but they don’t include headstone photos with these beautiful honor wreaths. We’d love to see that on the site, making sure that the inscribed headstone is fully visible. For those who’d like to contribute virtually, we’ve added an honor wreath to our virtual flowers under the holidays’ section.
There are remarkable traditions and customs for this time of year all over the world and we’d love to hear more about them! Also, what are your own family traditions that involve visiting cemeteries? Feel free to add them to the comments below.
Our best wishes to you this holiday season!
-Find a Grave Team
Thank You to all that Volunteers I can not do anything to help I am on a walker I wish I could help Thank You again