Wreaths Across America (WAA) has announced that Cedar Hill Memorial Park, Allentown, will once again join the effort as an official location for 2018. This is the seventh year that the cemetery will participate in this national event.

Wreaths Across America started as a simple gesture of thanks that, over the last 10 years, has grown into a national movement of dedicated volunteers and communities coming together not only to remember the nation’s fallen and honor their service, but to teach the next generation about the sacrifices made for freedom.

This year, there will be close to 1,600 participating locations and more than a million volunteers placing wreaths on National Wreaths Across America Day, Dec. 15. For the first time, wreaths will also be placed on the 9,387 veterans interred at the American Cemetery in Normandy.

Lehigh Valley Gold Star Mothers, American Legion posts and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, as well as businesses, families and individuals joined together to raise enough funds to place veterans’ wreaths on the markers of all the heroes laid to rest at Cedar Hill Memorial Park. This helps ensure that the individuals who served to protect the country’s freedoms never be forgotten and to bring the community together in patriotic commemoration.

“We are forever grateful for the thousands of supporters who dedicate their time and effort to fulfilling our mission on a local level,” said Karen Worcester, executive director of Wreaths Across America. “These individuals and their communities know the value of remembering the fallen, honoring those who currently serve and teaching the next generation about the sacrifices made for our freedom every day. Without their continued support, Wreaths Across America would not exist.”

Those who wish to sponsor a wreath for Cedar Hill Memorial Park 2019 are invited to visit Cedar Hill Memorial Park on Facebook or send an email to wreathscedarhill@yahoo.com to learn more.

Volunteers are asked to arrive 11:45 a.m. Dec. 15. The ceremony starts noon. Follow Wreaths Across America on Facebook at Wreath across America Cedar Hill.

National Wreaths Across America Day is a free, nonpolitical, community event open to all people.

Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization’s mission - Remember, Honor, Teach - is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.