Jeannette Wreaths Across America plans big expansion this year

Organizers of the Jeannette area’s Wreaths Across America effort are hoping to triple the number of veterans honored after a successful first year under the program.

Frank and Linda Drury of Jeannette want to raise $27,000 to place about 1,800 wreaths at five cemeteries.

“I’m doing everything this year full bore,” Frank Drury said. “I’m just hoping we reach our goal. This is going to be as big as we’re going to get.”

The couple embarked on the program last year to honor veterans who are buried at Jeannette Memorial Park in Penn Township. Their successful inaugural campaign got 642 wreaths placed there and at Saints Cyril and Methodius Cemetery in Penn Township.

This year, they want to memorialize servicemen and women at three additional burial grounds: Jeannette Catholic Cemetery in Penn Township, Sacred Heart Cemetery in Hempfield and St. Boniface Cemetery in Irwin.

National nonprofit Wreaths Across America supplies Maine balsam wreaths to volunteer groups, which then place the greenery on veterans’ graves across the country every December. More than 700,000 wreaths were laid at 1,000 locations in 2014, according to the nonprofit’s website.

Those locations in recent years included two cemeteries in North Huntingdon and one each in Irwin and Salem.

The Drurys carried over some money raised last year and now hope to get even more support to add the three cemeteries to their ranks.

“It was always our intention to get all of them,” Frank Drury said. “We wanted to get all the veterans in Jeannette.”

The deadline for donations is Nov. 1. Each wreath costs $15. Any money left over will go toward next year’s wreaths. Any wreath donations directed to the Jeannette VFW will help the Drurys get one free wreath for every two that are purchased. They will be laid Dec. 18, and a ceremony will be held at Jeannette Memorial Park.

About 30 volunteers helped lay wreaths there last year.