For the City Times

The annual Wreaths Across America ceremony will take place on Saturday, Dec. 17, at the Korean War Memorial in Plover.

The National Wreaths Across America Day, held in December each year, pays tribute to veterans who never made it home for the holidays and honors current military personnel who will be serving overseas during the holidays.

The ceremony will be hosted by the Stevens Point Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol. At exactly 11 AM, the ceremony will commence with a one minute of silence, coinciding with wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as over 1,100 additional locations in all 50 U.S. states, at sea, and abroad.

Wreaths will be placed at the memorial in honor of each branch of the U.S. military: Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine. There will also be wreaths laid in honor of and POW/MIA.

Following the ceremony, the wreaths will be moved by members of the Daughters of the American Revolution to graves of veterans in local cemeteries.

During the ceremony, the names of those veterans receiving the wreaths will be read aloud.

“We are not here to ‘decorate graves’,” said Karen Worcester, Executive Director of Wreaths Across America. “We’re here to remember not their deaths, but their lives.”

Also participating in the memorial ceremony will be VFW Post 10262, Plover Administrator Dan Mahoney, State Representative Katrina Shankland and State Senator Julie Lassa.

The event is free and open to the public.