- Sep 11, 2023
A new Wreaths Across America Day will be held in December in Bald Knob.
Bald Knob resident Joel Bryant, who had asked permission in August from the City Council to start the process of getting Shady Grove Cemetery recognized, told the council last week that the city’s Wreaths Across America Day will be Dec. 16, which is the national Wreaths Across America Day.
Bryant said community members can help VFW Post 10007 honor area veterans by sponsoring a wreath to be placed on a veteran’s grave at the cemetery.
“They are $17 a wreath and if people go to our website, which is wreathsacrossamerica.org/ar0092,
we will actually get three wreaths for every two that we raise for,” he
said. “So we’re doing good for [being at it] less than a month. We are
staying active. It’s just a matter of people paying attention to the
additional information after the original website (ar0092) so this site
gets credit.
“We are trying to get 400 [wreaths] as the total. We’ve got 330ish in the cemetery we’re proposing for but I have had a lot of questions about the cemeteries around the area, so I am just trying to have enough extra on hand. I can’t guarantee everyone will get one but if you let me know, I can try to have it on hand.”
Bryant said he is shooting for a deadline of the third week of November, right before Thanksgiving, “because everything is due the week after Thanksgiving so I’d like to be done.”
Bryant said he has talked to Bald Knob High School about having students identify some of the graves that need a wreath. He said because the state is requiring public service hours now for students, that would be one way for them to get some of those hours.
“I
think we are on our way,” Bryant said. “Everything is going strong.
We’re planning on having a couple of in-person things,; the money will
go straight to us and from us to the VFW Post and we’re going to use it
through our account to make those purchases [of the wreaths].”
He said within the next two months a table will be set up in front of Harps Food Store with information about the wreaths event.
Wreaths Across America was started as a non-profit in 2007.