Action often begins with a catalyst. Sometimes, all it takes is just a few words.
After listening to a 2014 Wreaths Across America (WAA) presentation—about a nationwide effort to honor perished veterans with wreaths at their final resting place—at the Arkansas school where she was teaching, Angela Beason decided to attend the ceremony at her local veterans’ cemetery. On that December day, only 200 wreaths were on hand, far too few to adorn all the graves of the dead that they were intended to honor. A woman standing beside Ms. Beason wondered whether her son, who had lost his life in service, would receive one of these holiday garlands. While offering the woman encouragement—a wreath soon adorned the grave—Ms. Beason thought of her own husband Bubba, who was overseas at the time with the Air Force, and asked herself whether someone would one day lay a wreath on his grave.
That painful question was the catalyst. The following December, with Ms. Beason’s help, that local cemetery was all covered with wreaths.
Today, Angela and Bubba Beason are WAA volunteer location coordinators for the Little Rock National Cemetery. Joining them in this enterprise are 2 million volunteers at 4,000 locations in 50 states.
At the Little Rock National Cemetery lie 22,000 men and women who served in the Armed Forces. Mr. Beason explained the complex logistics involved in honoring these veterans: the arrival of the trucks, the unloading and counting of the boxes, the ATVs and trailers that deliver these to specific sites within the cemetery, the Marines who help out, the members of the local VA (U.S. Veterans Affairs Department) who serve up coffee and refreshments, and the 400 volunteers who lay the wreaths on the graves. Though the Beasons and their volunteers once received 17,000 wreaths, they usually do not have enough for all of the deceased, which means they rotate through sections of the cemetery so that all veterans receive a wreath at least every other year. Around the country, volunteers begin laying these wreaths on individual graves at the same time as they are being placed at noon Eastern Standard Time on the graves in Arlington National Cemetery, which for the Beasons means everything must be in place by 11 a.m. sharp.
“It’s the happiest day of the year for me,” Ms. Beason said. “Everyone comes together. There are no political agendas. Families come out, and kids get to participate and write down and remember the names on the stones. Hopefully, they’ll carry on these traditions.”
It all started in 1992, when Morrill Worcester of the Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, found himself with an abundance of these decorations near the end of the season. Remembering a boyhood trip to the Arlington cemetery, and the impression it left on him when he saw hundreds of thousands of tombstones, Mr. Worcester contacted then-Maine Rep. (later Sen.) Olympia Snowe. Together, they arranged for the unsold wreaths to be laid on veterans’ graves in one of the older and least visited parts of the national cemetery. Volunteers pitched in that day, helping with transportation and logistical arrangements.
With Mr. Worcester’s act of generosity, Wreaths Across America was born.
The operation remained low-key until 2002, when a photo of the decorated Arlington graves amid snow made its rounds on the internet. Since then, Worcester’s original inspiration has morphed into the mighty efforts we see today to decorate every soldier’s grave for Christmas. Volunteers on this day pause at these tombstones, say the veteran’s name, and salute. Various ceremonies, including the singing of the national anthem and addresses made by living veterans, add to this occasion of remembrance and honor.
This year’s event will take place on December 16. The 2023 WAA theme is “Serve and Succeed.” Executive director Karen Worcester explained: “There are many ways to serve your community and country, and just as many definitions of success. We hope through focusing on those stories of success, we will help change the dialogue around what it means to serve your country.”
Now retired after “25 years, two months, and five days,” and “16 deployments,” Mr. Beason will wake well before dawn this December 16 and head off to direct traffic and volunteers at the state cemetery. Ms. Beason, his “Georgia peach,” as he lovingly calls his wife of 29 years, will be there alongside him. Mr. Beason will also continue to organize an annual 5K run that he founded to honor fallen veterans, called the “Arkansas Run for the Fallen.” Meanwhile, Ms. Beason, who in 2018 received an award from WAA for exemplifying the mission of teaching future generations about the sacrifices made by veterans, now serves at Cabot High School as assistant principal. She will be fundraising and recruiting volunteers for this year’s event.
Since its beginnings, the mission of Wreaths Across America has remained the same: Remember, Honor, Teach. This year, the Beasons, alongside an army of their fellow Americans, will once again fulfill that mission.
This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
