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Volunteers in Virginia pay tribute to veterans for Wreaths Across America

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers' graves decorated with wreaths for Christmas.

ARLINGTON, Va. — On Saturday, thousands of volunteers nationwide honored the sacrifice of our troops and their families. The mission of Wreaths Across America is to decorate the gravesites of those buried in our military cemeteries.

In the still morning air, volunteers across the country are breaking the silence to speak the names of soldiers and lay a wreath at their headstone. It’s a tradition 30 years in the making and one that grows larger every year.

"In some cases, this will be the only time someone comes to visit a grave of some of the veterans," said Daun Thomas Frankland, president of Columbia Gardens cemetery in Arlington. "Their family no longer exists, or exists in the area and we have a lot of people who contact us from outside the area; please make sure my brother, father, whoever gets a wreath."

Hundreds of thousands will be laid at Arlington National Cemetery, and many more at more than 3,500 cemeteries across the country, including Columbia Gardens. More than 20,000 are laid to rest there, and of them, more than 1,000 are veterans.

Wreaths Across America has taken place at Columbia Gardens for the past four years but its history is one of honoring veterans, It was founded more than 100 years ago, during World War 1, specifically as a military cemetery to give veterans a place to rest.

"My great-grandfather when the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, he thought that Arlington National would be full," said Frankland. "It was a terrible, terrible war and Arlington was full. So we became a backup cemetery for overflow of Arlington."

The wreaths are shipped to the cemeteries from Maine, and laid with the respect of a tribute carried through history.

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