Home Local News Rockingham’s Eastside Cemetery site of local Wreaths Across America event

Rockingham’s Eastside Cemetery site of local Wreaths Across America event

Army JROTC cadets from the Raider Battalion at Richmond Senior High School volunteer to place wreaths on veterans' graves at Eastside Cemetery for Wreaths Across America on Dec. 17. Photo by Jerry Andrews Photography

At memorials and cemeteries across the country, hundreds of thousands of people paid tribute to our veterans by taking part in Wreaths Across America Day on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. This year, Eastside Cemetery in Rockingham, North Carolina, was one of the over 3,400 cemeteries participating in the event.

The project began with a partnership between the local Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter and the AMVETS Post 316. Each group voted to sell wreath sponsorships for the veterans interred in a local cemetery.

A requirement of participation in the Wreaths Across America program is to hold a wreath ceremony in the cemetery where the sponsorship wreaths are placed. Since Eastside Cemetery, the largest municipal cemetery in Richmond County, is the resting place for over 600 veterans, it was chosen as the site for the 2022 ceremony.

“It’s a gift for our organization to be able to do this for our veterans interred in the cemetery and their loved ones,” said Sharon Hutchinson, WAA coordinator for the General Henry William Harrington Chapter of the DAR. “We can respect and honor the sacrifices that they made for us.”

The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, along with AMVETS Post 316, and volunteers county-wide took part in the ceremony to honor those who have served and are serving in different branches of the military. They then spread out throughout the cemetery to place over 300 wreaths on headstones and markers.

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This is the first year that Eastside Cemetery has taken part in Wreaths Across America. It is also the first cemetery in Richmond County to participate in the program.

“The wreath-laying ceremony is a meaningful event that honors all our veterans,” said Rockingham Mayor John Hutchinson. “I am thankful to all who worked to bring this national day of remembrance to our community.”

For some, this was a chance to teach their children how important it is to honor those who have served. For others, it was a way to honor a specific family member. Still others took part in the ceremony at Eastside Cemetery.

Ed O’Neal, post commander of Post 316, said, “I am extremely proud of the way our community came together to honor our veterans through Wreaths Across America.”



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