By Mike McCombs
The Island News
They’ve done it again.
For the third year in a row, organizers of Wreaths Across America Beaufort were able to place a wreath on every headstone at Beaufort National Cemetery on the annual Wreaths Across America Day held Saturday, Dec. 16.
Wreaths Across America Beaufort Coordinator David Edwards said the week of the ceremony that it would come down to the last minute.
“We have 26,000 interments out there, and we covered all of them the past two years,” Edwards said last week. “We’re working our butts off to get them that way this year. All we can do is ask the people to do the best they can.”
Despite some unusual delivery issues this year, the donors came through, and hundreds of volunteers showed up Saturday to place the wreaths. Everyone from veterans and the family members of the interred to Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and grateful families.
During Saturday’s ceremony, the Thomas Heyward, Jr. Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) awarded Edwards the DAR Medal of Honor. The award, the most prestigious honor awarded by the DAR, is given to an adult man or woman who is a United States citizen by birth and has shown extraordinary qualities of leadership, trustworthiness, service, and patriotism. The recipient must have made unusual and lasting contributions to our
American Heritage by truly giving of himself or herself to his or her community, state, country, and fellow man.
The honor has been bestowed on fewer than 2,000 individuals since its creation in 1972.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
Wreaths are placed in front of flags from each branch of the military during the Wreaths Across America Day ceremony on Saturday at Beaufort National Cemetery. Later a wreath was placed at every headstone in the cemetery, more than 26,000. Bob Sofaly/The Island News
U.S. Marine Corps Veteran John Maguire, right, and wife Charlene, far left, were part of the hundreds of volunteers who showed up to help distribute more than 26,000 wreaths during the annual Wreaths Across America Day on Saturday at Beaufort National Cemetery. Bob Sofaly/The Island News
Members of Daisy Girl Scout Troop 83 place wreaths on some of the more than 26,000 headstones during Wreaths Across America Day at Beaufort National Cemetery on Saturday, Dec. 16. Bob Sofaly/The Island News
Hundreds of volunteers showed up to help distribute more than 26,000 wreaths on each and every headstone during the annual Wreaths Across America Day on Saturday at Beaufort National Cemetery. Bob Sofaly/The Island News
