With a mission to Remember, Honor and Teach, Wreaths Across America coordinates wreath laying ceremonies at over 1,200 cemeteries worldwide.

GCI Outdoor is honoring fallen U.S. veterans this holiday season with a donation of wreaths to the non-profit organization Wreaths Across America.

Saturday, December 16 is National Wreaths Across America Day during which volunteers all over the country will lay wreaths on the graves of lost veterans. Founded in 2007 with a mission to Remember, Honor and Teach, Wreaths Across America will coordinate wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as over 1,200 additional locations in all 50 U.S. states, at sea and abroad.

“Supporting our veterans is very important to us so we’re doing this for all that have served and the brave ones who have lost their lives,” said Jeffrey Polke, co-president of GCI Outdoor. “The GCI Outdoor family would like to thank all U.S. veterans for their service and want everyone to know that we honor and respect all they have done to protect our freedoms. Peace be with you.”

With their headquarters in Higganum, CT, GCI’s donation will go to the nearby Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery and will help Wreaths Across America surpass their goal of 9,500 donated wreaths. Volunteers from the city as well as from the GCI Outdoor team will spend the day laying wreaths while remembering and honoring the fallen veterans.

Wreaths Across America started in 1992 when Morrill Worcester, owner of Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine, donated excess wreaths for placement at the Arlington National Cemetery. With help from Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the Maine State Society of Washington, D.C. and volunteers from the local American Legion, VFW Posts, Wreaths Across America now enlists the help of over 60,000 volunteers who lay over 700,000 wreaths each year. You can learn more about their story here.

“We are not here to ‘decorate graves.’ We’re here to remember not their deaths, but their lives,” said Karen Worcester, executive director of Wreaths Across America.

More information on donation, sponsorship and volunteer opportunities can be found here and on the GCI Outdoor website.

Photo courtesy Wreaths Across America