Ceremonial Wreaths honoring all the military services will be placed at 15 local locations on Saturday December 17th. At 12 of those locations’ wreaths will be placed on military graves.
The public is invited to participate in all of these events, including placing wreaths on military graves.
The first ceremonial wreath ceremony will be at the Coffee County War Memorials on the Square in Manchester at 9 a.m.
At 11 a.m., the same time as the Ceremonial Wreaths ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, ceremonies will be held at the following local cemeteries followed by placement of wreaths on pre-marked identified military graves.
Beech Grove Confederate Cemetery in rural Coffee County Evergreen Cemetery in Tullahoma
Hurricane Grove Cemetery in rural Coffee County Maplewood Cemetery in Tullahoma
Oakwood Cemetery in Tullahoma
Pelham Church of Christ in Grundy County
Shofner Cemetery in rural Bedford County
At 2 p.m. a ceremony and wreath placement on military graves will be held at Fredonia Cemetery in rural Coffee County.
Ceremonial Wreaths only will also be placed at:
Citizens Cemetery in Tullahoma (Old Camp Forrest area) Rose Hill Memorial Gardens in Tullahoma
Ceremonies will also be held later that day at:
Holt Cemetery in rural Bedford County
Mount Zion Haley Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in rural Bedford County
Three Forks Cemetery in rural Bedford County
Warren Red Hill Cemetery in Grundy County
Families of military veterans buried in any of these cemeteries are invited to make sure the local Wreaths Across America (WAA) committee has the name and location of the grave of their family member so a wreath can be placed on their grave.
Wreaths Across America has placed Remembrance Wreaths on the military graves at Arlington National Cemetery at Christmas for more than 30 years. This year they will place more than 400,000 wreaths at Arlington.
The Coffee County Wreaths Across America Committee was formed in 2017 and joined now more than 4,000 other sites nation-wide now participating in this program to honor our deceased military veterans with some 300 wreaths at three locations that year.
This year the Coffee County Wreaths Across America committee members and associated organizations will place more than 1,000 wreaths at 15 local sites.
The Coffee County WAA committee working with several other local groups has surveyed most of the locations and geo tagged all the military graves that could be identified.
Many local organizations have helped with this effort at the cemeteries since 2017 including, but not limited to: Coffee County High School Air Force Junior ROTC, Tullahoma High School Marine Corps Junior ROTC and Warren County High School Army Junior ROTC. Local VFW, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans posts, Christian Motorcycle Riders, local Boy Scout and Girls Scout troops,
The group would like to thank all who have donated to the local WAA events.
All the money collected for this project goes directly from the local WAA committee to Wreaths Across America who will ship the wreaths directly to Coffee County from Maine.
$15 sponsors one wreath. Checks should be made out to WREATHS ACROSS AMERICA and dropped off or mailed to Cyndi Clower (931) 728-9898 at Clower Automotive at 1406 McArthur St. in Manchester, TN 37355.
Wreaths across America is an IRS 501c3 non-profit and all donations are tax deductible.
Businesses, organizations and individuals can sponsor wreaths and they can do so in memory of a deceased veteran or veterans.
If you would like to volunteer to help raise sponsorship funds, identify veterans’ graves or help place wreaths when they arrive in December call Claude Morse (931) 247-5151.
If you would like to sponsor an additional local cemetery in 2023, please call Claude Morse at (931) 247-5151 for information on how to do it.