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Wreaths Across America stops in Dover to honor vets

A red semi truck is parked in front of rows of graves, each displaying a holiday wreath, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Wreaths Across America

Thousands of holiday wreaths intended to decorate the graves of veterans at Arlington National Ceremony stop in Dover on their way to Virginia.

The wreaths come from Wreaths Across America, a non-profit group headquartered in Maine. A convoy of trucks delivering the wreaths are making several stops along their route to Arlington.

Doug Poore is the local coordinator for Wreaths Across America. He says that stops like the one in Dover on Thursday afternoon serve a purpose.

“All to spread the message of Wreaths Across America, which is, remember our veterans, honor their service and sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their families, of course," he said. "And then to teach our younger generations about both what they did and what their families have done.”

In addition to the convoy’s stop at Dover Motor Speedway, the group is also hosting a resource fair for veterans at Bally’s Casino that morning.

“We’ve got over 50 different organizations that will help veterans with their housing, medical needs, benefits, whatever they need help with," Poore said.

Poore says the group started small, more than 30 years ago, when a wreath maker in Maine wanted to donate his extra products to Arlington. A few years later, the cause went viral in a big way.

“Someone took a picture of the wreaths as snow had fallen against a lot of the civil war markers that are over there, and that picture went beyond viral - over 2 million views in a week," he said.

The idea spread to other cemeteries, and Poore says this year, over 4,000 cemeteries are participating, adding up to some 3.5 million wreaths.

The Wreaths Across America convoy rolls up to Dover Motor Speedway at 1:15 Thursday. They arrive at Arlington the next morning and will be on display there until January.

Martin Matheny comes to Delaware Public Media from WUGA in Athens, GA. Over his 12 years there, he served as a classical music host, program director, and the lead reporter on state and local government. In 2022, he took over as WUGA's local host of Morning Edition, where he discovered the joy of waking up very early in the morning.