donated in your name and volunteers place it on a
veterans grave, and the Let Freedom Ring Wreath
delivered to your home for the holiday season
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
THE ARLINGTON PROJECT
Worcester Wreath and its involvement with the Arlington project was inspired at the early age of 12 years old when, as a Bangor Daily News paper boy, Morrill Worcester won a trip to the Nation’s Capital. It was a trip he would never forget, and Arlington National Cemetery (Official Site)made an indelible impression. In later life, he recognized that his success as a businessman was in large part, due to the values of this Nation and the Veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.In 1992, the Wreath Company found themselves with an excess of wreaths nearing the end of the holiday season. Seeing an opportunity to make a boyhood dream a reality, efforts to do something special with those wreaths began in earnest. With the help of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, arrangements were made for the wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older sections of the cemetery, a section which received fewer visitors with each passing year.
With plans underway, a number of other participants began their support for the project. James Prout, owner of Blue Bird Ranch, Inc generously provided and transportation all the way to Virginia. Volunteers from the local American Legion and VFW Posts gathered with members of the community to decorate each wreath with signature red, hand-tied bows. Member of the Maine State Society of Washington, DC and John Metzler, Jr, Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery worked to organize the wreath-laying, including the incorporation of a special ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Now over fifteen years and over 100,000 wreaths later, many volunteers participate in the project each year. After learning of the annual trek to Arlington to honor our fallen heroes, Larry Ross, an elementary school teacher from Canaan, Maine, has taken several groups of his students to help with the wreath-laying.
Patriot Guard Riders Escort Wreaths from Maine to Arlington
Each year volunteers gather in Harrington, Maine the Sunday before the wreaths depart for Arlington to share in a rich tradition of decorating the wreaths with crimson red bows, and loading the truck for its long trip to Washington D.C.
The Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle and motor vehicle group with over 65,000 members nationally, dedicated to patriotic events, are in charge of the escort the tractor-trailer loads with donated wreaths from Maine to Arlington. They are joined by other patriotic motorcycle and motor vehicle groups along the way.
Plans are in the works to make the 2009 escort an even bigger event. With anywhere between 50-300 vehicles joining in the procession (dependent on weather), the escort will begin in Harrington, Maine. Travelling US Route 1 for most of the journey, the escort will arrive in the D.C. area.