Volunteers get wreaths ready Posted On: Sunday, Nov. 22 2009 05:37 AM By Don Bolding
Killeen Daily Herald

In a rapidly growing tradition, about 350 community volunteers gathered at First United Methodist Church of Killeen Saturday morning to prepare 2,100 green, red-ribboned wreaths to place on graves at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in a ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, with preparations beginning at 9 a.m.

In 2006, a committee formed at the instigation of Harker Heights Realtor Jean Shine after she and her daughter-in-law, Hilary Shine, attended a Wreaths Across America ceremony, part of a nationwide events that places several wreaths at veterans' cemeteries but not on individual graves. A hastily-formed Friends of Central Texas Veterans Cemetery found 400 wreaths to place on graves. The second year saw the number grow to 900 wreaths, and last year, 1,400 wreaths were laid.

The wreaths are placed the Saturday after Thanksgiving and left through the Christmas season to be retrieved in another ceremony after Christmas.

Last year and this year, the community has been invited to the church to take the old wreaths out of storage, discard wreaths too worn to be re-used, fluff up the remaining old ones and new ones unloaded from trucks and put new bows on all of them, said Dave Hall, committee vice president. The wreaths will be hung in the church until time for the ceremony, where the pastor, Rev. Skip Blancett, will speak.

As in past years, "Families who have relatives buried in the cemetery will be invited to pick up wreaths first, and then others attending may take wreaths and place them on the remaining graves," Hall said. "We want to have a wreath on every grave."

Shine said any remaining wreaths would be available for family members with veterans buried in other cemeteries to take to place on their graves.

This year, the committee had a one-and-a-half hour meeting with Texas Veterans Land Board Chairman Jerry Patterson to secure official approval for the practice, and Patterson issued authorization for all state veterans cemeteries to host similar ceremonies, said committee member Cyd West. "Once again, Killeen is a model for the nation," she said.

Teams were at work in all available rooms of the church, which donates facilities for the effort.

Retired Chief Master Sgt. Joe Gainey, fluffing wreaths with his wife, Cindy, gestured toward the packed fellowship hall and said, "We're all family here, and we're family with the people we're going to honor. It doesn't matter whether they're at rest. I could be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but Cindy and I will be buried at this cemetery because we want to be buried where our home is." He has participated in the preparations before, but this is her first year.

"I was so deeply moved by the retrieval ceremony last year that I've been looking forward to this," she said.

The volunteers included many children and teens. Tessa Stewart brought her daughters, Brenna, 12, and Keegan, 8. Tessa said, "I want to teach the children the value of participating in the community." Brenna said, "I want to help people remember our veterans who have died."

Yearlong fundraising efforts that have usually funded area-wide searches for enough wreaths and bows are highlighted by imprinted T-shirt sales. Darlyne Gehring, Jean Shine's next-door neighbor, was manning a table with an estimated 300 shirts at the church.

Donations may also be made at wreathsforvets.org or by mail to AUSA/wreaths, 100 W. Central Texas Expressway, Suite 102, Harker Heights, Texas 76548-2080.

Contact Don Bolding at dbolding@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7557.