If you happened to see an 18-wheeler making its way along 250 this morning, escorted by two Webster police cars with lights flashing, you saw the Wreaths Across America truck! It was delivering our 650 wreaths, which will be placed on veterans’ graves at Webster Union Cemetery tomorrow afternoon.
My regular blog readers know the story about how Webster is participating in Wreaths Across America for the first time this year, but in case you need some background, click here.
WPD officers met the truck at the North East Joint Fire District Station #2 at Plank and Salt roads and escorted it up 250, through the village, and all the way to Webster Union Cemetery, where our 75 boxes of fresh wreaths were unloaded in preparation for tomorrow’s ceremony. I don’t know if anyone was able to get outside and cheer the truck on as it went through the village, but we had several people welcoming it at the cemetery.
Pat, the truck driver, was pleasantly surprised — and a bit taken aback — by the fanfare. As plans for the escort were coming together, he even asked Location Coordinator Cherie Wood why the police were coming. He said that the welcome was the best he’s experienced in the two years he’s been driving for Wreaths Across America. He did add, however, that the Location Coordinator in Speculator gave him a gift bag “that was so heavy the handles broke.”
Pat did have a little trouble with the weather as he headed south and west from Maine on his deliveries. “I barely made it up the driveway in Utica.” he said. “It’s like this, and they didn’t have it scraped out.” He added that it would be great if Webster could sponsor so many wreaths next year that he could just “fill the entire truck and I would just have to stop here.”
After leaving Webster, Pat had three more stops, in Chili, Walworth and Pembroke.
About 300 people have already signed up to help lay the wreaths tomorrow at the Wreath Ceremony, which begins at noon at Webster Union Cemetery at the corner of Rt. 250 and Woodhull. We’re going to need a lot more help (especially if the weather is yucky and people decide to stay home.) There’s still time to sign up. Click here to do so. Parking may be an issue, so stay tuned to my Facebook page for updates on plans for that and other important details.
Many photos and videos were taken this morning. Click here for a full gallery, which I will also be adding to later. (Many thanks to Rogina Davis for most of these photos.)
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I leave you with this touching story:
A Wreaths Across America Location Coordinator in Texas said a tornado went through their little town on Tuesday. It toppled headstones, took down trees and bent the flagpole in half.
But Wreath Day will go on. The town turned out to clean everything up in time for Saturday’s ceremony. They said they needed Wreath Day more than ever this year, and weren’t going to let a tornado stop them.
That really kind of sums up the significance of this event. Please consider signing up to become a part of it.
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(posted 12/16/2022)
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What a wonderful Webster welcome!!
Wonderful tradition! Thanks for continuing on with this. God Bless all. If I wasn’t sick I would have loved to help.