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A celebration of Wreaths Across America to be held at Linwood Cemetery

Daughters of the American Revolution members Mary Ball and Linda Morcom walk to the trailhead below Linwood Cemetery with wreaths in preparation for this weekend's Wreaths Across America event.
Chelsea Self/Post Independent

Saturday is National Wreaths Across America Day and the Daughters of the American Revolution are holding a ceremony at the Linwood Cemetery.

“We were just looking for something to do to honor our veterans and those who have served,” said Mary Miller Ball, a regent member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution in the Captain Richard Sopris Chapter.

The Captain Richard Sopris Chapter will be celebrating their first wreath hanging for this region with the hopes of growing the program in future years. 



“We’re living in the mountains,” Miller Ball said. “The snow shouldn’t phase us.”

The ceremony, beginning at 1 p.m., will commemorate the seven veterans buried in the Linwood Cemetery by hanging holiday wreaths on each of their gravestones. 



The veterans being commemorated are:

• Marion “Bud” Ayers, Chief warrant officer, US Navy, 1905-1983 

• Alexander Bennie, an Army Civil War Veteran, unknown-1888

• Joseph B. Hayes, Pennsylvania 5th US Cavalry, unknown-1933 

• Chas A. Hinman, CO I and the 18th Iowa Infantry Regiment, no dates given

• Anthony W. Lindsay, served in the Army, unknown-1890

• James M. Riland, CO II and the 19th Iowa Infantry Regiment, unknown-1888

• Whitney Eugene Sayre, First Lieutenant Montana, unknown-1937

The initial ceremony will be held right at the trailhead of the Linwood Cemetery so local veterans who may not be able to do the climb to the cemetery can come to attend the ceremony.

“We’ll be posting colors,” Miller Ball said. “We’re gonna have a couple of ROTC gentlemen doing that, and then we will read about Wreaths Across America and the Veterans.”

Then the DAR members and the ROTC will head up the trail to place the wreaths. 

There are eight ceremonial wreaths for each branch of service the Army, the Navy, the Marines Corps, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, Space Force, the National Guard and then a final wreath for members who were missing in action or prisoner of war. 

“One of the main focuses of every DAR chapter is community service,” said Linda Morcom, the registrar for the Glenwood DAR chapter. 

In the future the society chapter will be open to celebrating at other cemeteries in the county in the future. 

The Captain Richard Sopris Chapter was born in 1961 and covers the majority of Garfield County, along with Aspen. They have 39 members in the charter currently.

“We cover Aspen, Glenwood, Rifle and New Castle,” Miller Ball said. 

Wreaths Across America was started in Maine at the Arlington Cemetery. Now, Wreaths Across America provides and sends wreaths to different DAR chapters across the nation by the truckload.

“We focus on historical preservation, education and patriotism, as far as the DAR goes,” Miller Ball said.  

If you would like to donate, sign up to volunteer or inquire about possible video recordings of the event, please email CaptainRichardSoprisRegent@coloradodar.org

 

If you go…

What: Wreaths Across America

When: 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17

Where: Linwood Cemetery trailhead, 310 Bennett Ave.


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