Usually, they have between 1,200 and 1,500 wreaths, he said, but they were able to work with the headquarters of Wreaths Across America to get more wreaths.
“Speaking for myself, as a veteran, these individuals here are like family to me,” MacKellar said. “I don’t want to let a day go by where I forget them.”
MacKellar said 7,400 wreaths is not enough to lay one on each soldier’s grave in the cemetery, but it is a significant amount.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Dennis Adkins, who runs the veteran’s court, working with veterans who have ended up in the legal system, said this was an important event for him to attend each year.
He said he was happy to see so many people came out to the event despite the cold, rainy weather on Saturday and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was so thrilled to get here and see as many people who came out here and braved the weather to honor our veterans,” Adkins said. “It truly makes me proud to be American when I see that.”
The tradition began in about 2007, MacKellar said. Dayton was one of the first sites to have the wreaths after Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Ashley Pool, one of the people laying wreaths, said her great-grandfather served in World War II. She said she wanted to come because she knew what it was like to have a family member in the service.
“I would want someone to do this for him,” Pool said, after she laid a wreath on a soldier’s grave.
On Jan. 22, at 9 a.m., MacKellar said the cemetery would be picking up the wreaths off of the graves. The public is welcome to come, he said.
For the first time this year, he said the organization is partnering with the Montgomery County Solid Waste District to recycle some parts of the wreath and make the process more eco-friendly. Before, they would have to just throw out the wreaths, MacKellar said.
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