Lake Oconee Elks Lodge is a proud supporting group of the Wreaths Across America organization.  

This non-profit organization works to “remember our fallen U.S. veterans, honor those who serve and teach our children the value of freedom.”  

The organization’s main annual event places wreaths at the grave sites of veterans buried in national veterans cemeteries and many other participating cemeteries across the country.  

In 2020 approximately 1.7 million veterans’ wreaths were placed across the country, approximately 267,000 of them at Arlington National Cemetery, including 14,000 for the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery. Additionally, more than 1 million volunteers participated at 2,557 locations nationwide and more than a third of the volunteers were children.

This year the Lake Oconee Elks Lodge is initiating a program to assist in the donation of wreaths for this annual event. For each wreath that is donated through the lodge, the lodge will receive $5 in return to put back into area veterans programs. Help the Wreaths Across America program fulfill its mission by visiting the lodge’s Wreaths Across America web page at https://wreathsacrossamerica.org/GA0345P

Donate a single or multiple wreaths to one of the directly supported locations or any nationally participating location. 

The Lake Oconee Elks are directly supporting the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Milledgeville, the Greensboro City Cemetery in Greensboro and the Lake Oconee Lodge No. 2849 Memorial Wall.  

The wreaths will be laid on Saturday, Dec. 18 at noon.

The Wreaths Across America story started with Morrill Worcester of Harrington, Maine as a 12-year-old paperboy when he won a trip to Washington, D.C. His first trip was one he would never forget and the Arlington National Cemetery made an indelible impression on him. This experience followed him throughout his life and successful career as a wreath maker, reminding him that his good fortune was due, in large part, to the values of this nation and the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

In 1992, Worcester found himself with a surplus of wreaths nearing the end of the holiday season. Remembering his boyhood experience at Arlington, Worcester realized he had an opportunity to honor the nation’s veterans. With the aid of former Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, arrangements were made for the wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older sections of the cemetery that was receiving fewer visitors with each passing year.

The annual tribute went on quietly for several years, until 2005, when a photo of the stones at Arlington, adorned with wreaths and covered in snow, circulated around the web. Suddenly, the project received national attention. Thousands of requests poured in from people wanting to help with Arlington, and to emulate the Arlington project at their national and state cemeteries, or to simply share their stories and thank Worcester for honoring the nation’s heroes.

In 2007, the Worcester family, along with veterans and other groups and individuals who had helped with their annual veterans wreath ceremony in Arlington, formed Wreaths Across America, a non-profit 501c(3) organization to continue and expand this effort, and support other groups around the country who wanted to do the same.