10th Annual Wreath Laying Ceremony set for Veterans Cemetery

11 9 Wreaths 1 scaledThis year the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery Volunteers are proud to present their 10th Annual Wreath Ceremony on Saturday, December 17, 2022 at 1 pm at the Wall of Honor located in the cemetery.

Family members and guests will park in the community parking lot located on Bagging Plant Road across from the cemetery and ride the handicapped buses across to the staging area for the program. Buses will begin running at 11:30 and continue until 12:50 pm at which time the gates will be closed to all traffic.  Wreaths are made possible from contributions from family members and patriots from all across Virginia and from many other states.

This year we will lay 1,600 wreaths, one each gravesite and one at the bottom of each of the 125 rows in the Columbarium.   Gravesites are designed to contain both husband and wife.   This brings the number of actual persons interred at the cemetery at this time to approximately 2,200 including veterans and family members.

This year’s program is dedicated to Warren Spradlin, a former Vice Chairman and Emeritus Member of SWVAVCV.  Warren was one of two UAW Local 2069 Veterans Committee Members and also served as Vice Chairman for over 9 years.  He also served as Chairman of the Wreath Laying Subcommittee.

Be sure to check out the Christmas Ornament desk when you arrived at the program.  We are selling our 10th Year Anniversary Wreath Christmas Ornament for $10 to support our programs at the cemetery.   Be sure to also check at the rendering of our upcoming project for the future—The Southwest Virginia Cemetery Veterans Memorial Bell Tower. More information about the tower will be posted on our website in 2023 at www.swvavcv.org.

Everyone is welcome but we remind all guests that this is a time for families to honor their loved ones who are interred here. So please be sure that you allow family to go first to lay their wreaths and if they are graves without wreaths after the families have finished then you are welcome to lay a wreath on those graves.