US: Thousands of roses to be placed for Memorial Day
Chris Johnson, who is organizing the event this year at Miramar, said, “It’s about bringing back the original meaning of Memorial Day, by encouraging people to visit cemeteries and decorate grave sites while recognizing the sacrifices made by our fallen military heroes and veterans. Thousands of veterans’ grave sites go unvisited and unrecognized on Memorial Day – the national day to honor our fallen troops and decorate their grave sites.”
“This year the local organizers would like to place a rose on each of the 10,000 grave sites at Miramar,” said Ramiro Penaherrera, a co-founder of the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation. “So far 6,000 roses have been sponsored by CalFlowers and local flower growers. Chris and his team are reaching out to the San Diego community to cover the needed 4,000 roses.”
To volunteer to place roses over Memorial Day Weekend at Miramar National Cemetery, contact Chris Johnson, 760.533.5580, [email protected].
Donations are still being accepted. A $10 donation will place a rose on twelve graves. The donation of $100 will sponsor a bucket of 125 roses to be placed on 125 headstones at Miramar National Cemetery. A remembrance bouquet of flowers is included with each sponsored bucket.
To donate funds so more gravesites can be recognized with a floral tribute, go to: https://memorialdayflowers.org/web/portfolio_page/miramar-national-cemetery/
The lead sponsor for placing roses at the cemetery is CalFlowers, which is placing 3,000 roses and 50 remembrance bouquets.
The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation has partnered with Rallypoint for a campaign to place a #FlowerOnEveryGrave.
If you have a loved one interred at Miramar National Cemetery or Arlington National Cemetery and you can't make it for Memorial Day, contact [email protected] with name, section, and headstone number. A volunteer will place a rose at the headstone, take a photo and email it to you.
This event is part of a national effort by the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation that will place tens of thousands of roses at 17 cemeteries around the country.
Participating cemeteries include: Arlington National Cemetery (Virginia), Fort Snelling National Cemetery (Minnesota), Houston National Cemetery (Texas), Sacramento Valley National Cemetery (California), San Francisco (California), Washington Crossing (Pennsylvania), Miramar (California), South Florida, Jacksonville (Florida), Beaufort (South Carolina), Arizona, Southern Maine, Long Island (New York), New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Fort Jackson (South Carolina), Lancaster Cemetery (Pennsylvania). Eight cemeteries participated last year and 240,000 floral tributes were placed to honor our fallen service members and veterans.
For more information:
www.memorialdayflowers.org
