NORTHWEST, Ohio — This year the "Wreaths Across America" program will be held Saturday, December 14 nationwide to honor the graves of veterans everywhere.
This week, the Toledo Memorial Park in Sylvania proudly showed off its colors as a the Wreaths Across American educational van made its rounds in Ohio and Michigan.
The program started in 2007 and through fund raising it has been able to decorate 18 million graves in 16,000 cemeteries.
All of the wreaths are produced in Maine and cost $15 each. They're then shipped coast to coast, including Arlington Cemetery.
"We ask everybody when you're laying a wreath say the name of the veterans, take a moment and reflect on who they may have been. Think what their life may have been like and by saying their name, that's where the remembering comes in," explained Don Queeny with Wreaths Across America.
At the Toledo Memorial Park, 14,000 veterans are buried. Due to fundraising, 3,000 veterans were able to have a wreath placed on their grave. The hope is to increase that number this year.
"We have a car show as our biggest fundraiser. All kinds of donations, local people give us gift cards. Ace Hardware gave us a chair and table that went with it. We get nice gifts for that kind of stuff," said Mel Harbaugh.
Harbaugh is a part of the WAA Toledo Chapter of the program.
This year will be the 7th year that northwest Ohio participates in the program.