Fort Riley holds Wreath Across America ceremony

MANHATTAN, Kan. (WIBW) - Fort Riley held its 17th annual Wreaths Across America ceremony Saturday at the Fort Riley post cemetery.

Service representatives placed ceremonial wreaths for each of the armed forces. Jerri McBride, co-chairman of WAA for Fort Riley, said

“it is very dear to our heart Fort Riley cemetery is a very old cemetery a lot of the families have moved on and so its important for us in the community and Fort Riley to gather here and honor those and remember those that served our nation,” said McBride.

Wreaths Across America holds observances at Arlington National Cemetery and in more than 3,400 locations in all 50 states and 24 national veteran cemeteries on foreign soil. The organization’s motto is “remember, honor, teach”.

“This is a military community so there’s a lot of veterans here and then there’s a lot of people that worked with the veterans for the veterans and have family members that are veterans and I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to bring the community here to remember, to honor, and to teach,” said McBride.

After the ceremony, many people placed wreaths on individual military gravesites in the cemetery.

“that when you come out here or any cemetery every stone has a story and on the stone, you usually see the beginning chapter and the ending chapter we just want you to remember all the chapters in between,” said McBride.

Wreaths Across America has been growing every year as this year they laid over 1.2 million wreaths.