ROWLEY — If you'll be traveling around town Monday morning, better plan to allow some extra time to get to your destination. That's because you may be slowed down by The Wreaths Across America convoy, a procession that travels from Harrington, Maine, to Washington, D.C., transporting wreaths to lay upon the grave sites at the Arlington National Cemetery. It is expected that the convoy will pass through Rowley sometime before 11 a.m. that day.
Accompanied by anywhere from 50 to 300 vehicles, including The Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle and motor vehicle group dedicated to patriotic events, the convoy will start its journey in Harrington on Sunday. The trip will last the week and see the group through to Washington, D.C., by Sunday, Dec. 13, which in 2008 was unanimously voted by Congress as "Wreaths Across America Day," the day the wreaths will be laid upon the graves.
While the convoy will make some stops at local schools, veterans' posts and hospitals, and even at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro for a ceremony, it will just pass through Rowley on Dec. 7, though it will stop at Patton Park in Hamilton at approximately 10:30 a.m. that morning.
The convoy will follow U.S. Route 1 for most of its trip, traveling from Maine through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, arriving at its final destination of the Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, Dec. 11.
Wreaths Across America is a nonprofit 501-c3 organization that was formed as an extension of the Arlington Wreath Project, which was started by Morrill Worcester in 1992 with the donation and laying of 5,000 Christmas wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery. The project received national attention in 2005, when a photo of the stones adorned in the wreaths circulated around the Internet. From there, others started to emulate the project, and in 2006, more than 150 locations held wreath-laying ceremonies simultaneously.
When the Patriot Guard Riders volunteered as escorts for the wreaths going to Arlington, so began the annual Veterans Honor Parade that travels the East Coast in early December. Riding with the message of "Remember, Honor and Teach" as their mantra, the group stresses the importance of honoring each fallen serviceman as an individual.
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