BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
I'm Melissa Wright atProspect Hill in north Omaha in this historic cemetery there are over 300 veterans buried here. Many have no living family left to visit them but that doesn't mean they are forgotten. Every year veterans are honored across the nation with wreath with red bows on their burial marker.
"It's important for us to remember them and to honor them, so I think its even more important when there's not family here to recognize them," said Shannon Justice.
This annual tradition invites volunteers to place wreaths on the grave sites of vets. Shannon Justice with Prospect Hill says the board worked to secure the funds. Prospect Hill is one of the oldest in Nebraska and some veterans are buried without markers.
"It's a little bit like a scavenger hunt, you have a map and a little bit information and you have to go find these graves," said Justice.
Justice says the goal for next year is to get wreaths for all the veterans in the cemetery even the ones that will require more work to find.
"My heart would overflow with joy. it would be marvelous, you know a lot of the times, we will set the wreaths on the that are most visible so when folks visit the cemetery they can witness the wreath," said Justice. "To have those wreaths placed on the graves that are necessarily on the beaten path, to me that is the goal."
Wreaths sponsorship has closed for this year but you can still buy a wreath for $17 for next years Wreaths Across America Day. You can visittheir website and select prospect hill.
Prospect Hill will honor veterans in this cemetery for the third time on December 14th at 11a.m. Neighbors looking to help with placing wreaths on graves at Prospect Hill can arrive at 11:15 a.m at the office.
