The nearly 2,400 wreaths being used to decorate veteran gravesites at Maplewood Memorial Lawn Cemetery for Emporia’s Wreaths Across America ceremony this upcoming weekend are now in town.
A semi delivered the wreaths at the Lyon County Fairgrounds on Monday after leaving Maine this past Tuesday. Driver Ernest Cogswell, an Army veteran stationed at one time at Fort Riley — and who celebrated his birthday on Pearl Harbor Day on Sunday — is making his first delivery for Wreath Across America.
The ceremony will be at 11 am Saturday at Maplewood Memorial Lawn Cemetery and will see the graves of every veteran interred at the cemetery decorated with a wreath, the result of a massive push toward that end last month that also led to over 930 graves already set to be decorated next year. Last year had over 650 graves decorated.
Organizers have announced the parking map for the activities Saturday, highlighting public and volunteer parking in Jones Park and handicapped parking along Jones Drive immediately north of the cemetery, including a golf cart shuttle service. The cemetery’s normal entry points along Prairie and Lincoln streets will not be available to the public. As was the case last year, the ceremony will take place in the green space on the Prairie Street side of the cemetery.
Residents with grave-specific wreaths are asked to show up at the Jones Park pedestrian entrance at 10 am Saturday. Wreath-laying volunteers are asked to meet at the Lincoln Street entrance at 11:45 am and then move to the west side of the cemetery for wreath placements beginning at noon.
Organizers will have more information during KVOE’s Newsmaker segment at 7:20 am Tuesday.
