Photo: The 2005 photo that captivated America
by Windy Goodloe, Secretary, Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association
This year, the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association is participating in Wreaths Across America, which is an organization that honors our dearly departed veterans.
The founder of Wreaths Across America is Morrill Worcester. As a young boy, he won a trip to Washington, DC. During the trip, he visited Arlington National Cemetery, and he was deeply affected by this experience. Worcester started a company called Worcester Wreaths, and in 1992, he found that his company had a surplus of wreaths during the holiday season. With help from Maine Senator Olympia Snowe (ret.) and James Prout, who was the owner of a local trucking company, plans were made to place wreaths on the older sections of Arlington National Cemetery that didn’t receive as much attention. This was done without much public attention for about a decade. But everything changed when, in 2005, a photo began to circulate on the internet. With this sudden national attention came requests for ways to help with the efforts at the National Cemetery and how to replicate these efforts at state and local cemeteries across the nation. Each year, the number of volunteers and wreaths purchased grew. Fast forward to 2024, over three million sponsored veterans’ wreaths were placed on headstones at 4,909 participating locations.
At the time of this writing, we are deep in fundraising mode, and we have eleven days left before the fundraising ends. On Saturday, December 13, we will have our wreath-laying ceremony. According to the statistics listed on Wreaths Across America’s website, we will be among the “two million volunteers and supporters who will gather to remember, honor and teach at more than 5,200 participation locations in all 50 states, at sea, and abroad.”
We (SISCA) partnered with the Kinney County Cemetery, helmed by Lisa Conoly, which will also be placing wreaths at the Catholic, Masonic, and Ballantine cemeteries. The fundraising efforts officially began at the annual Hunters’ Roundup during the first weekend of November. Since then, we’ve been delighted by the amount of interest that has been shown by people who want to honor their loved ones by purchasing wreaths.
The wreaths cost $17 each and can be purchased in varying amounts, including groups of five and 12, and the number can be customized. Our goal is to have 112 wreaths sponsored. So far, we have 38 wreaths sponsored. We have 74 more to go, meaning we are 33.9% to our goal. If you would like to sponsor a wreath, please visit wreathsacrossamerica.org and search for TXSISC.
