Jeannette-area Wreaths Across America chapter expands to honor 1,800 veterans

When Halle Copeman arrived at the Wreaths Across America event last year, she was running behind; there was only one headstone left where she could place a wreath.

“I walked up, and it was my best friend’s grandmother,” Copeman of North Huntingdon said. “I got chills.”

Copeman returned this year with daughter Kennedy, 5, joining more than 40 volunteers placing holiday wreaths at military headstones in St. Boniface Cemetery in Penn Township.

It is one of an expanded group of a half-dozen cemeteries where volunteers from the Jeannette chapter paid tribute to veterans across western Westmoreland County.

“We’ve gone from 642 headstones our first year, to 1,801 this year,” chapter coordinator Frank Drury said.

Last year, the group — part of a national effort coordinated among nonprofits, community and veterans’ groups — expanded its reach to place wreaths at St. Boniface, St. Michael’s, St. Cyril, Methodius, Sacred Heart and Jeannette Catholic cemeteries as well as Jeannette Memorial Park.

It has grown not only in the number of veterans honored but also to include a ceremony with local Boy Scouts and a bugler.

The event itself began in 1992, when Worcester Wreath Co. owner Morrill Worcester found himself with a surplus of holiday wreaths and arranged to have them placed at an older section of Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Beginning in the mid-2000s, the event began expanding nationwide.

Today, it takes place in more than 3,400 locations across the U.S., including cemeteries in Irwin and North Huntingdon through another local chapter.

On Saturday morning, volunteers at St. Boniface Cemetery were pulling on tossel caps and gloves as they cut the tape on boxes full of wreaths, set in place the night before by Drury and his wife, Linda, who started the local event.

Military headstones are marked with a blaze orange flag to make them easy for volunteers to identify.

Drury’s father, Frank, a Jeannette resident and volunteer, said the morning cold wasn’t half-bad compared to the past two years.

“Two years ago, we got that blizzard with 9 inches of snow,” he said. “We were out here in the morning at Jeannette Catholic Cemetery shoveling it away so you could see the flags.”

Amy Gower of Greensburg has volunteered the past three years.

“We had the snow, and then last year it was 40 degrees and raining the whole time,” she said. “But I think it’s a great way to honor veterans, educate children about history and get them involved.”

Drury agreed.

“It’s pretty touching to see all these people come out, even in the cold weather,” he said.

For more on the Jeannette group, see WreathsAcrossAmerica.org/pages/164108 or visit their Facebook page.