Wreaths Across America to honor veterans buried in Beaufort County. How you can help

Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to placing wreaths on the graves of fallen soldiers and veterans across the country, is making another trip to Beaufort County on Dec. 17. Here’s how you can support fallen heroes.

The annual ceremony begins with the wreaths on trucks being escorted down Boundary Street to Beaufort National Cemetery by “real tough guys” on motorcycles and ends with families laying wreaths, said Wreaths Across America Sun City organizer Andrea Hoerner.

In Sun City, the 55-plus community in Bluffton, residents have rallied every year from September to November since 2018 to organize wreath sponsorships.

“What’s beautiful is you see families doing it,” Hoerner said. “Mainly, they’re military families ... and they’ve got kids with them, it is kind of a family tradition. For the kids, it’s kind of a lark, but there’s a real feeling of, ‘Yeah, we’re doing this together.’”

Hoerner is just one of several neighborhood captains in Sun City who collect funds for the $15 wreaths.

During the pandemic, when no one was allowed to go in person to the ceremony, the tradition was deeply missed, Hoerner said. When it was back up and running in 2021, the group collected $81,000, gaining them the title of the largest fundraiser for Wreaths Across America in South Carolina along with recognition from the organization’s executive director.

“We really did good last year. We were amazed,” Hoerner said. “It wasn’t because of anything in particular that we did. I was worried because of the economy, but some people are just very generous.”

The group, which has set its own deadline of Nov. 15 to make sure they get everything to the organization on time, has been able to raise about $38,000 so far this year.

The Dennis J. Becker American Legion Post 205 is also gathering funds to sponsor wreaths in Beaufort County. The organization will get $5 per wreath purchased to fund other projects that support veterans and service members in Beaufort County. Their most recent project, Operation Wipeout, supplied the families of service members with baby diapers to offset household costs.

Wreaths Across America Day started in 1992 when Worcester Wreath Company owner Morrill Worcester got the idea to lay wreaths at the graves of veterans at Arlington National Cemetery. In 2005, the organization gained national recognition when a picture of snow-covered graves and their wreaths went viral. Since then, about 2,500 volunteers organize every year to distribute the wreaths in cemeteries across the country.

The deadline to sponsor a wreath for Wreath’s Across America is Nov. 30.

For more information about Sun City’s fundraising efforts, contact andyhoerner@gmail.com.

For information on the American Legion Post 205, go to www.alpost205.org.

If you are a group raising money to sponsor wreaths for Wreaths Across America and wish to be added to this list, please email newsroom@islandpacket.com.