Maine Wreaths Heading To Arlington National Cemetery For The 19th Year

Wreaths to leave Maine for Arlington

By Sharon Kiley Mack
BDN Staff 

MACHIAS, Maine — A week of celebrations and honorariums for the Wreaths Across America campaign will kick off on Dec. 3 with a special wreath-laying event at the Machias Veterans’ Home. The campaign will end a week later, on Dec. 11, when more than 150,000 wreaths will be laid on veterans’ graves at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and 350 at other veterans’ cemeteries and monuments across the country.

At least 20,000 of those wreaths will be donated by Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington. This is the 19th year of the annual Worcester Christmas tradition and the fourth year of the national Wreaths Across America campaign.

The original placement of the Maine wreaths began in 1992 when Morrill and Karen Worcester found themselves with a surplus of wreaths and brought them to Arlington. Morrill Worcester said that as a young paperboy for the Bangor Daily News, he had won a contest that included a trip to Washington, D.C. He said he never forgot the sight of the white crosses at Arlington.

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