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December may be half a year away, but a local group’s efforts to honor veterans during the holiday season has received an early boost from a business that shares their vision.
Members of the Shawnee Fort Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, learned recently that their participation in the annual Wreaths Across America event to decorate veterans’ graves each December will receive a donation of nearly 300 wreaths from Mission BBQ, a Maryland-based chain that has a location on Mundy Street in Wilkes-Barre Township.
“I was thrilled,” said Shawnee Fort Chapter member Kathleen Smith, who serves as location coordinator for the chapter’s project to place wreaths at Hanover Green Cemetery in Hanover Township. “I read it three times just to make sure.”
The DAR is a patriotic volunteer women’s organization, chapter Regent Karen Komorek explained.
Mission, meanwhile, was founded on Sept. 11, 2011 by two friends, Bill Kraus and Steve Newton, patriotic Americans who are passionate about BBQ, according to the company’s website.
Mission’s restaurants feature patriotic dining rooms filled with tributes to those who have served our country — soldiers, firefighters, police officers, and first responders — and the company frequently donates to military service organizations.
Earlier this year, Mission BBQ announced the donation of $350,420 to national nonprofit Wreaths Across America.The contribution was made possible thanks to the generosity of Mission’s customers and their support of the chain’s American Heroes Cup fundraising campaign.
Under that campaign, restaurants in 16 states have designated a portion of the fund to be allocated for veterans’ wreaths at Wreaths Across America participating cemeteries in their regions, with 88 locations chosen.
“We remain proud and humbled to stand with Wreaths Across America and the amazing work they continue to do to remember, honor and teach,” Mission’s Kraus said.
According to the notification received by the Shawnee Fort Chapter, the local DAR’s project at Hanover Green was chosen by customers and store staff, and will receive 297 wreaths to be placed on veterans’ graves for Wreaths Across America Day on Dec. 19.
Wreaths Across America coordinates wreath-laying ceremonies at more than 1,600 locations across the United States, at sea and abroad, according to the nonprofit group’s website. There is no cost for groups to participate, except for obtaining wreaths.
“It’s very important to us,” Smith said. “It’s always important to honor veterans who are buried in our cemeteries and this is a wonderful way to do that.”
Hanover Green Cemetery was founded on June 9, 1776 — about a month before the Declaration of Independence — and is the resting place for more than 1,600 people who served in the nation’s armed forces from the American Revolution to the modern era.
Among the notable names at Hanover Green are Rufus Bennett, George Washington’s personal bodyguard, who was laid to rest here in 1842. Also here is Lt. John Jameson, who survived the notorious Wyoming Massacre of 1778 but who was ambushed and scalped by British-allied natives in front of the cemetery in 1782.
Of course, the stones of Hanover Green are also engraved with the names of many who served within living memory.
There is a bronze plaque for Wayne B. Wolfkeil from Hanover Township. A former Penn State football player, Wolfkeil was an Air Force pilot whose plane crashed in Laos in 1968 during the Vietnam War. The 36-year-old aviator’s remains were never recovered, but a marker celebrating his life was placed in the cemetery in 1979.
Last December, the DAR was able to secure community sponsorships for just shy of 400 wreaths to place on graves in the cemetery, exceeding their goal of 300.
“We were very proud of the community support, and we’re humbled and thrilled,” Smith said.
This year the chapter’s goal is to hit at least 600. They also need volunteers to help place the wreaths. Already, not counting the Mission BBQ donation, they have 81 wreaths sponsored.
To sponsor a wreath or for more information, visit https://tinyurl.com/hanovergreenwreaths.