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Every fall, the volunteers of Wreaths Across America spend countless hours making sure the lives and names of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country are never forgotten.
To help spread the word on the organization, a Mobile Education Exhibit was launched in 2018, the brainchild of Renee Worcester, Director of Development/Partnerships & Mobile Education Exhibit and her husband, Mike, son of Wreaths Across America founder Morrill Worcester.
"We mostly started out in schools and local Maine community events," said Trish Gardner, operations manager for the mobile exhibit.
"As Wreaths Across America grew, so did the mobile exhibit," she said.
In 2020, the exhibit made its first West coast, and in 2027, the organization is hoping to expand its reach into the Midwest.
"The mobile education exhibit goes out into communities and helps teach about the groups in those communities that support cemeteries that honor the veterans, their hometown heroes," Gardner explained.
"It’s like a traveling billboard," she said.
Starting July 21, the exhibit will visit more than 35 locations throughout central Pennsylvania.
The visits are courtesy of long-time volunteer Dori Rankinen.
"She is why we do this. It’s a beautiful thing volunteers like her do," Gardner, who is also an American Legion auxiliary family member, said.
"Dori knows how many heroes she honors, and a lot of them no longer have family around to remember them," she said.
Rankinen will also be hosting a poker run to benefit the organization on July 25.
Due to mechanical issues the exhibit traveled roughly 19,000 miles and had about 7,379 visitors, including welcoming home 649 Vietnam veterans, while in previous years, it has traveled upwards of 40,000 miles and had about 25,000 visitors, Gardner said.
Gardner said that while visiting, the exhibit becomes a safe spot for veterans.
"They tell stories their loved ones, their families have never heard before. Most veterans don’t speak of their service; they keep it inside, so it has a healing aspect," she said, calling it "hard to describe."
"I used to have a Navy veteran on board. He was a medic, and I’ve watched him talk with other medics, I would just have to walk away for 30 minutes so they could have their place," Gardner said, adding that although she has never served, she has family and coworkers that have.
Visitors to the exhibit are treated to a lesson on the history of Wreaths Across America.
"You also get to see pictures of the tip lands where the wreaths come from," she said.
"All 3.1 million wreaths last year were made in Columbia Falls, Maine. There are over 20,000 acres in production, and they use about the same 20,000 acres every year," Gardner said.
"They tip the trees, so they’ll learn that process and how a wreath is made," she added.
Gardner said each wreath has 10 boughs with a corresponding poem and symbol pertaining to a different quality of a veteran.
"On the back side of the museum exhibit is our 20 seat theater where you’ll see three very short videos, lasting about eight minutes total. One is a gold star mom, one is the history of Wreaths Across America, and shows you our trip to Normandy and Belgium, when we got to visit the American Battlefield Monument cemeteries and the people we met along the way there," she said.
"There’s also a video about how the wreath is made, and says the poem of these 10 bows and what it means to be a veteran, and how our founder Morrill respects that, and why he wrote this poem," Gardner.
Gardner invites everyone to stop by and see the exhibit for themselves.
"We’re a traveling billboard. We’ll be blowing down 70, 81, 83 and people will see us and wonder what we’re about, and might Google us and learn a little bit about Wreaths Across America. But once you actually come inside the unit and talk to one of the ambassadors or the host, that’s where you’ll get a deep dive of Wreaths Across America, why we started this and our founder Morrill," Gardner said.
"This was not about service for him, but this is about thanking those heroes that go out and give their all. They say all gave some, but some gave all. And this is for the some that gave all. This is his thank you," she said.
"He was that 12-year-old paper boy who won a contest to go to D.C. and got to see Arlington, and what an impression that was upon him. So when he had those 5,000 extra wreaths in that year, and he went down to D.C. again to Arlington to say thank you to those heroes, that’s what they’re going to take away," Gardner said.
"We are here to encourage people to think about their heroes wherever they may lie. It’s not only in the national cemeteries, it’s in that small cemetery that you pass every day when you go to the grocery store. When you drop the kids off at school, you’re going to pass a cemetery and 10% of those people in that cemetery, they’re veterans," she said.
Gardner hopes that those visiting the exhibit will be inspired to get involved.
"Adopt a cemetery wherever it is. Whether it’s on the side of a highway, in the middle of a farm field, or right there, sitting next to a church. Adopt a location. Find out how," she said.
The exhibit’s stops in the area will include: Gamble Farm Inn, 311 N. Main St., Jersey Shore, July 21, 2 to 8 p.m.; American Legion, 515 Legion Road, Muncy, July 22, 1 to 7 p.m.; Walmart, 1015 N Loyalsock Ave., Montoursville, July 23, noon to 6 p.m.; Poker Run at Antlers on the Water, 610 Antlers Lane, Williamsport, July 25, 1 to 7 p.m.; American Legion, 185 Broad St, Montgomery, July 26, noon to 6 p.m.; Walmart, 1015 N. Loyalsock Ave., Montoursville, July 27 and 28, 1 to 7 p.m.