KELSEYVILLE>>> This year’s Wreaths Across America event was held on Saturday at the Kelseyville Cemetery on Bell Hill Road. Many people gathered that rainy morning to disperse over 350 wreaths on the grave sites of local veterans over this holiday season, celebrating their lives and what they gave to this country.
The local Scotts Valley 4H group, alongside a few Girl Scouts, started the event with inspirational quotes and speeches as volunteers ate donuts and drank coffee, warming up for the work that lay ahead. The student speakers explained the importance of remembering our veterans as we give thanks throughout the upcoming holidays.
Girl Scout Zoe Boone shared that the Girl Scouts have participated in this event for the past 14 years, with this being the first year the 4H group has taken the reins. Boone herself has participated during the past nine years, since she was 9 years old, and is now in her last year of scouting as she will be graduating from Kelseyville High School this academic year.
Growing up down the street from the cemetery helped keep her interested in the Wreaths Across America event as it become a location she frequented often. She said, It’s a great event every year.” Fellow Girl Scout Emily Anderson has also participated in the event a lot. “I have done this so many times,” she said. Anderson received her gold award this year which is the most prestigious award a Girl Scout can earn.
Before heading out to begin the work of finding the veteran graves and laying out the wreaths, Marine veteran Stephen Boone shared a few words about Linda Breeding, who lost her husband Donald many years ago in an incident in Panama while he was serving in the Army’s Security Agency.
Both he and his father received Purple Hearts, which is awarded to those who are wounded or killed while serving. Although they are both buried in their hometown of Hayward, Breeding volunteers at the Wreaths Across America event every year. As a Girl Scout troop leader for troop number 10490 Breeding shared “We did it with the scouts for 14 years. It used to be both the girl and boy scouts.”
Boone also shared the origins of the event, beginning on the east coast when a Christmas tree farmer, who was also a veteran, decided to take the leftover branches from his trees and make wreaths to put on the graves of his fallen friends. That was in 2007 and the event has grown to be celebrated across the country today.
Local resident Ferdous Kamfar expressed her gratitude for our veterans, ensuring that there were no extra wreaths and that they all found a home. Attending the event in honor of her son, Romin Kamfar, a Kelseyville High School alumni who is currently serving in the US Air Force in Qatar. She shared, getting emotional, “It is his third trip to the middle east.”
Despite the rain, it was not long before each wreath had found a grave site to adorn, forming a sea of holiday colors. Giving a visual of the sacrifice many have felt to ensure the freedom of our nation.
