19-05-2025
Wreaths Across America Mobile Exhibit honors veterans during visit in Grafton
GRAFTON, (WBOY) – The Wreaths Across America (WAA) Mobile Education Exhibit visited Grafton Sunday, setting up its display in the Walmart parking lot.
A 60-foot truck trailer, featuring a 20-seat screening room, presented a video highlighting the organization's mission. The exhibit was open to all community members and visitors at no cost. Also, an educational wall within the exhibit provides insight into the history and purpose of the Mobile Education Exhibit, as well as the organization's future goals. Visitors also had the opportunity to explore two interactive tablets that offer detailed information about the organization's efforts.
'Our goal is to put a wreath on every veteran's grave around the world. We did 3.1 million last year with 3 million volunteers, and out of those 3 million volunteers, a third of those were kids, which is great. But in the grand scheme of things that's just a drop in the bucket because there is over 24 million and that is just a rough estimate,' the Driver Ambassador for Wreaths Across America Richard Schneider said.
A central focus for WAA is honoring veterans interred at both the Grafton National Cemetery and the West Virginia National Cemetery in Pruntytown. Each December, volunteers come together at these cemeteries to lay wreaths on the graves of fallen heroes as a meaningful tribute to their service and sacrifice.
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'We try to teach the kids about it, but remarkably the kids up here know a lot about it, they are very well engrossed. I think their teachers do that for the help, and that is good, that is a good thing,' Schneider said. 'We just want to get the kids to know about what it's all about and what these guys have done, the freedoms that they have. I was a U.S. Navy, I was a corpsman.'
The WAA Mobile Education Exhibit is scheduled to visit Taylor County Middle School on Monday, May 19, and Grafton High School on Wednesday, May 21. According to WAA officials, these school visits are an integral part of the organization's national educational mission to inspire young people with lessons on service, sacrifice, and patriotism.
Also, the mobile education exhibit will be on display in downtown Grafton on Thursday, May 22, Friday, May 23, and Saturday, May 24, welcoming visitors daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. WAA officials noted that the exhibit will be set up near one of two landmark locations: the historic B&O Train Station or the International Mother's Day Shrine in downtown Grafton.
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