Whenever we celebrate a milestone, we’re reminded of the journey that brought us here.

Today, Wreaths Across America proudly begins its 20th year as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization...and with it comes many memories.

Many of you know that Wreaths Across America began as the Arlington Wreath Project in 1992. My husband had been in the balsam products industry for years, and that year he found himself with a surplus of wreaths. He immediately thought back to a moment from his childhood: standing in Arlington National Cemetery as a twelve-year-old after winning a trip as a paperboy. That experience left a lasting impression on him.

He hoped to place those wreaths as a simple thank-you to those who served, and to teach our children about service and sacrifice. With help from a local elected official and a generous trucking company, he received permission and 5,000 wreaths made their way to Arlington.

The impact of that first year was profound. Everyone involved felt it. Our family and a handful of volunteers vowed to return every year…and they did. From 1992 through 2005, the Worcester family donated the wreaths, and Bluebird Ranch Trucking Company provided transportation.

Then, in 2005, a Pentagon photographer captured what would become an iconic image: wreaths resting in the snow at Arlington. Once it was posted online, it spread quickly. By 2006, we were inundated with requests from people across the country who wanted to participate. Listening carefully to veterans, Gold Star families, and supporters, our family responded by providing approximately 100 ceremonial wreaths in addition to the traditional 5,000 for Arlington.

By 2007, the demand had grown beyond anything we could have imagined. Thousands wanted to take part, and their voices helped shape what came next. That year, Wreaths Across America was formed, and our mission became clear, built not just by a family, but by a nation of people determined to remember.

Fast forward to today. We are humbled and proud to stand alongside more than four million volunteers, united in a common mission and a shared understanding of what sacrifice truly means.

As our country approaches the historic milestone of its 250th anniversary, the magnitude of this moment should not be lost on our organization, or on any of us.

We face both a challenge and an opportunity: to ensure that 250 years of sacrifice is not remembered by the next generation as distant data, dates, or names etched in stone, but as real lives once lived by individuals who understood how fragile freedom truly is.

We can preserve our American heroes as part of the living memory of the next generation by sharing them not as statistics, but as individuals with names, faces, and voices. We answer the call to “Remember me” when we tell their stories personally. We ensure their sacrifice is felt, not forgotten, and that freedom is understood as the hard-won gift it truly is.

Join us in carrying that legacy forward.

Remember. Honor. Teach.

With gratitude,

Karen Worcester