December 5, 2023 – Slinger, WI – On the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour and the 11th minute sirens were heard throughout America. These sirens were to honor Armistice Day, the ending of WWI. However, in 1954 Armistice Day was renamed to Veterans Day, the day where we honor those who have fought for our country’s freedoms, equality, and rights. There are many organizations that raise awareness for Veterans Day, and one is Wreaths Across America.
WAA is a nonprofit organization that raises awareness for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by placing wreaths on veteran graves.
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Wreaths Across America functions on a national level; however, with the help of veteran Vince Strupp WAA was brought to our own community, Slinger WI.
Wreaths Across America is a nonprofit organization for honoring lost veterans and was founded by Morrill Worceester in 2007.
Vince Strupp, a Slinger grad and Fohl-Martin Post Legion member, brought WAA to the local legion after helping out on a national level. Wreaths Across America’s goal is to honor, remember, and teach others about these veterans and what they fought for.
WAA honors veterans by properly laying wreaths on the graves of lost veterans; in 2022 alone, 2.7 million veterans who passed were honored, with 810 of them being local. All 50
states participate in WAA, as well as some countries overseas, and there are about 3,702
participants in total.
Slinger High School (SHS) has been supporting Wreaths Across America for five years, as well as other nonprofit organizations like Stars and Stripes Honor Flights, the VFW, the Legion, and more.
The SHS social studies department also shares information about Wreaths Across America,
how and why, we honor vets and allows students to volunteer to help lay the wreaths.
Students at Slinger are also able to donate money for the wreaths; every $15 made is turned into a wreath for a grave.
Slinger Middle School teacher Heather Kiefer told CSEA 7 Communications, “it is a way to commemorate them [veterans], to let the families and communities know that they are not forgotten.”
This helps to show one of the many reasons why WAA is important: it helps give honor to not only the vets who made the ultimate sacrifice, but also to the families who had to suffer their loss.
This year, 2023, Slinger High School was able to raise $631 for WAA. The wreath laying will
take place December 16, at 9 a.m.
Volunteers can participate in the wreath-laying ceremonies at Sacred Heart (Allenton), St. Mathias (Nabob), SS Peter & Paul (Nenno), St. Anthony, St. Lawrence, St. John (Beaver Dam Rd / WW), Zion (Hwy D), and St. Peter (Beaver Dam Road), St. Peter (old & new), Union, Diefenbach Corners, Cedar Creek, Faith (Hwy E & Ackerville), St. Paul, St. John and Rosenheimer.
To learn more about the ceremony visit the website, www.wreathsacrossamerica.org
Because not only is it important to remember and honor these veterans, but it’s also important to learn that America has freedom and equality because of what they fought for.
So please, join us at one of these locations to help honor the veterans for fighting for America, so we can have the freedom we do. Thank you for your service and thank you to the families who had to endure the loss of someone they love, so that we can have a better life in our country.
About the author: Onnacka Lacy, 15, is a sophomore at Slinger High School. Her article was originally published in The Nite Crier.
