By Keith Lawrence Messenger-Inquirer 13 hrs ago 0

Every December since 2013, Owensboro has participated in the national Wreaths Across America campaign, which honors deceased veterans at Christmas.

And it’s time to begin ordering wreaths now, County Clerk Leslie McCarty said Friday.

She’s the new location coordinator for the Owensboro Memorial Gardens location.

Nathan Morris, general manager of Haley McGinnis Funeral Home & Crematory, is in charge of the ceremony at Resurrection Cemetery.

McCarty said wreaths can be ordered at www.wreathsacross america.org.

She said if anyone is uncomfortable about ordering things online, they can email her at lesbyrne24@gmail.com.

“People need to specify which cemetery they want the wreaths to go to,” she said. “Otherwise, they won’t come to Daviess County.”

Last year during the coronavirus pandemic, McCarty said, she and friends collected flowers to lay on veterans graves when the ceremony was canceled at Memorial Gardens.

“Honoring fallen veterans is near and dear to my heart,” she said.

This year’s ceremony will be at noon on Dec. 18 in each cemetery.

Morris managed to have the ceremony at Resurrection Cemetery last year, turning it in to a drive-thru event.

Families who bought wreaths for the graves of a loved one drove through the cemetery, picked up a wreath and placed it on the grave.

In 2019, when the trucks from the national Wreaths Across America organization rolled into Owensboro, they brought 1,644 wreaths to Resurrection and 1,580 to Memorial Gardens.

Wreaths Across America began in 1992 when Worcester Wreath Co. in Harrington, Maine, began placing wreaths on the headstones at Arlington National Cemetery.

The company had 5,000 wreaths left over from its Christmas sales that year.

So, it shipped them to Arlington to be placed on the headstones of veterans.

The movement began from those wreaths.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com