Newton County residents are invited to participate in a special wreath laying event Saturday at the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery. Through Wreaths Across America, a national effort to place a wreath on the grave of every United States military service member, the cemetery has collected almost 900 wreaths.
Henry Gruno, director of the cemetery, said all are invited to attend and participate in laying wreaths.
“We’re inviting the general public, veterans, families, children, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, anybody that wants to be involved to come out and help us lay wreaths,” he said. “We have 841 graves here as of today, and so we’ll place around 900 wreaths to include our memorial stones and our Persian Gulf memorial up front.”
Gruno said the cemetery is planning to hold a short, 30- to 40-minute ceremony prior to laying the wreaths to thank those who helped raise funds for the event and reflect on the sacrifices of the veterans, who are buried in Newton.
“We have a full bird colonel from the Marine Corps as our keynote speaker,” he said. “General Bill Freeman from Newton will emcee the event for us.”
While laying wreaths on veterans’ graves is an annual event, Gruno said this year the community really came forward to help raise funds for the event. The wreaths, which are assembled in Maine, cost $15 each. When buying almost 900 of them, he said, that can really add up.
“The Friends of Mississippi Veterans, the Madison Cadet Squadron and the Newton County Career and Technical Center all have been fundraising groups for us over this past year,” he said. “Their efforts have allowed the family members to not have to come out of pocket as much as they have in years past.”
Gruno said the community response this year has been “phenomenal.”
“I can’t even begin to describe it,” he said.
The wreath laying ceremony is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, and Gruno said he is hoping to have a large group of people attend. However, he said, those who have visited the cemetery before know parking is somewhat of an issue. To help with that, he is asking everyone to come through the front entrance of the cemetery, where there will be people assisting with parking.
“We will have LEO support, which should help with parking,” he said. “Parking here is kind of a mess.”
Gruno said there will be a plan in place to handle to the influx of vehicles come Saturday, and residents shouldn’t worry about that. He said all the community needs to do is come to the cemetery Saturday morning ready to lay some wreaths.
