Every single headstone at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery donned a wreath this holiday season to honor the veterans buried there. According to Wreaths Across America, around 48,000 wreaths now need to be removed and volunteers are needed.
Telemundo 39 Veteran’s Network and NBC 5’s donation page collected around three thousand wreaths, which were laid in a ceremony held on December 18 by Wreaths Across America.
“Thank you for helping us bring Wreaths Across America to the DFW National Cemetery!!! This year, we laid 48,400 wreaths,” Wreaths Across America shared on their website.
The 39,000 wreaths from last year’s ceremony took around two and a half hours to remove from the cemetery. The more people there to help, the easier and faster it will be to complete the job.
Volunteers should bring water, work gloves, and a broomstick if they have them on hand. NBC DFW shared that broomsticks can be used as a tool to help volunteers easily pick up the wreaths as they walk down the rows.
At the end of each row, collected wreaths will be placed into organized stacks. Other volunteers will then place the wreath stacks onto a wagon and transport them to the edge of the street.
Any volunteers that own a pickup truck and a trailer are asked to come help as well. Those individuals will load the wreaths from the street and transport and dispose of them in the dumpster on the south side of the administration building.
This year’s removal date is scheduled for January 15 and work will begin at 8:00 in the morning. The DFW National Cemetery is located at 2000 Mountain Creek Parkway in Dallas.
As the motto of Wreaths Across America says, “REMEMBER our veterans that served and are serving America, HONOR the fallen veterans, and TEACH our youth about the service and sacrifice of our veterans and families.”