We finally made it folks! It's finally happened! 12 organizations that I have helped with this year. 12 Organizations that were very hard to keep up with this year because of how crazy everything has been. However, I am so glad that even with how hard it was to keep up and find things to help out with I am glad that this was the year I was able to help to give back in a lot of way.
The grand finale of the Jack of All Trades year is actually something I was so honored to do last year that I am so thankful that I got to do this year too.
The December I worked with Wreaths Across America.
Wreaths Across America is an organization that raises money to Honor those who have served out country. If you have ever been to a National Cemetery around Christmas time and have seen all of the Wreaths that are laid there this is the organization that puts it together. I actually found out about this group of fine people on Facebook last year and volunteered. When I told my mom she said she wanted to be apart of it too. So, we went and we loved it. This year I was worried that it wasn't going to happen because of COVID. I was worried because they didn't allow the placing of the flags on the 4th of July either and it made me sad. However, they did do it.
This year we had to sign up for groups at a certain time and we also had to do wear a mask. They had trucks that they used to load boxes to the different sections of the Cemetery and they also what time slot was doing what section. I was really scared that I wasn't going to have as great as an experience this time as I did last year because I thought everyone was going to be so afraid of COVID that people were not going to do the amazing and wonderful work. I have never been more happy to be proven wrong. Yes, it was different. I didn't like that not everyone could come in at once and help. I did like that volunteers used truck to spread out the boxes of wreaths cause that made things easier than having many people lug boxes over 25 acres to get all of the wreaths where they needed to go.
What I loved was the most this time around was saying the names out loud of those buried there. I didn't fully understand why it was encouraged last year but this year I got it. One of the people with the organization was a veteran himself and his brother is buried in the cemetery. He said that there are two deaths: the first is when you die and the second is when no one remembers your name. So, laying the wreaths out and saying the name of the person gave a meaning to me this year that it didn't last. It was touching. When I started doing it did get emotional because there are so many unknown soldiers buried in our cemetery. So, placing a wreath on a flat and not having a name did get emotional. It got me thinking about the loved ones back home who would maybe find out where that person was buried but have no idea were they were there. That hits different when you do that.
The other reason that it felt better connected to it this year is because last year when I was laying wreaths I placed one on an interesting headstone.
It's hard to see the name here, but this is the resting place of Frank Anthony Romano. Last year I placed a wreath on his headstone and realized that him and I share the same birthday of December 5th. He died on my best friend Alaina's birthday, February 7th. Over the last year I have done some research on him, not sharing it on here, but I found out that this many had a great life and and interesting one. As far as I can tell, he doesn't have anyone living in Knoxville to visit him or to decorate his stone one important days that we honor those who served. So, I have "adopted" his resting place. So, I was honored to place another wreath on his stone this year.
I know that I have said this about a few of the other volunteering stuff over the year but I think this one is my all time favorite. It's the one that meant the most to me. I am happy to make this a yearly tradition for Christmas time for as long as I live.
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