Some 4,500 wreaths are being placed on the graves of veterans today at Memorial Park Cemetery in Sioux City as part of the “Wreaths Across America” event.
Steve Ponder of the Great West Casualty Company is leading the Sioux City event. “Each one of these wreaths is representative of an individual who has served in the armed forces. The community will come together and we will put these wreaths out,” Ponder says.
Ponder says wreaths are being delivered across the U.S. by trucking companies that volunteered their services. “Memorial Park is just one of 5,000 cemeteries across the country where these wreaths will be laid out to honor the veterans who have sacrificed to defend out freedoms,” he says.
Local American Legion Commander Rene Lapierre says Sioux City residents were asked to help volunteers find the graves. “With the snow cover it makes it very difficult for us to identify specific graves, ” he says. “But if they know where he or she is buried, they are a veteran, they can grab a stand, grab a wreath and place it on there.”
The wreaths are made in the state of Maine and volunteers raise funds to pay for them.
The Iowa Veterans Cemetery near Van Meter, the Keokuk National Cemetery also participate in the Wreaths Across America program, along with several other local cemeteries.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)