Oswego — National nonprofit Wreaths Across America (WAA) announced today that Fort Ontario in Oswego will once again join in the effort to support the mission to “Remember, Honor, Teach,” as an official location for 2021. This is the fourth year that the cemetery will participate in this national event.

The ceremony for National Wreaths Across America Day at Fort Ontario is scheduled for Dec. 18 at 12 p.m. inside the old stone fort. Guest speakers for the ceremony include Oswego Mayor William Barlow Jr. and Fort Ontario Location Coordinator Corey King. National Wreaths Across America Day is a free, non-political, community event open to all.

Those interested in volunteering for Wreaths Across America or sponsoring a wreath for the Fort Ontario Post Cemetery are invited to visit https://wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/155232/Overview/?relatedId=0.

Wreaths Across America started in 1992 as a simple gesture of thanks at Arlington National Cemetery. The event has grown into a national movement of dedicated volunteers and communities coming together to not only remember the nation’s fallen and honor their service, but to teach the next generation about the sacrifices made for Americans to live freely.

This year, there will be more than 2,500 participating locations placing wreaths on National Wreaths Across America Day, with more than two million volunteers coming together.

“The goal at Fort Ontario is to raise enough funds to place 77 remembrance wreaths on the headstones of all the local heroes and their families laid to rest there, to ensure that the individuals who served to protect the freedoms of our country will never be forgotten, and to bring the community together in patriotic commemoration,” said Corey King, site location coordinator.

“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, 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, and without their continued support, Wreaths Across America would not exist.”

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 National Cemetery, as well as at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.

For more information, to sponsor wreaths or to sign up to volunteer, visit www.WreathsAcrossAmerica.org.

Follow Wreaths Across America on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WAAHQ and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WreathsAcross.

A child paces a wreath at the Fort Ontario Post Cemetery during a previous Wreaths Across America observance at Fort Ontario. (Photo by Emily King.)