Volunteers work through cold to pick up 12,000-plus wreaths

 

story and photos by Joel Rafkin
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Volunteers braved the sub-freezing temperatures Sunday morning and gathered up more than 12,000 wreaths placed graveside at the Fort Smith National Cemetery. The wreaths from the Christmas Honor’s event were on display since Dec. 11.

About 50 people swiftly moved throughout the cemetery and had all the wreaths piled curbside in about an hour and a half. Six Pickup trucks, some with attached flatbed trailers, shuttled the wreaths across the street to the Fort Smith Convention Center where other volunteers were assembled for the packing process.

As the wreaths came in, they were piled on tables or the floor while volunteers worked to clean them of leaves and other debris, sort them into stacks of twelve, box them 12 to a carton and twelve cartons to a pallet. The pallets were then loaded into tractor trailers and transported back to Baldor where they will be stored until next year’s Christmas Honors event.

"I think we’re going to be here until the sun goes down if we don’t get some more volunteers," said Claude Legris who was working the packing process at the convention center.

The pace picked up as people migrated from the cemetery to assist the approximately 20 people working at the convention center. The issue was that the volunteers needed to  remain at the cemetery to load the trucks and could not assist with packaging until the bulk of the pickup and transport was complete. On the other hand, the packing crew could not pack and simultaneously unload.

The effort, first held December 2009, well see the placement of a wreath on the about 12,500 headstones at the Fort Smith National Cemetery. The Education & Quality of Place division of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, which is leading the effort, raised more than $62,000 in 2009 and gathered thousands of volunteers in the inaugural effort.