COLUMBIA FALLS — Wreaths Across America makes history as it remembers and honors those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. On Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018, Wreaths Across America will place 9,387 veterans’ wreaths honoring all U.S. service members laid to rest at Normandy-American Cemetery and Memorial in France. 

“The process has lined up amazingly,” said Wreaths of America board member Renee Worcester. Worcester’s father-in-law founded Wreaths Across America and she said he “always had the idea of taking it international.” 

Worcester said that when Wreaths Across America began in 2003 it was a “family project,” fast forward 15 years and the organization has touched lives all over the country. 

They operate with a small group of year-round staff and “many, many volunteers,” Worcester said. “We can never call enough attention to our volunteers or trucking partners. The wreaths are a catalyst, but the mission is year-round.”

The Normandy event proceeds the annual convoy to Arlington National Cemetery which will leave Maine on December 9 for a week-long trip and much anticipated ceremonial stops along the way. 

“The wreaths bring communities together to celebrate the freedoms that we have,” Worcester said. “It’s a sense of patriotism, a sense of hope for our country and a sense of pride. [Arlington] is a bursting a beautiful celebration of life, and what those lives stood for.”

The Normandy event represents the first time Wreaths Across America has sent U.S.-made balsam wreaths to foreign soil. The December wreath-laying event is a collaboration between the Normandy-American Cemetery and American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and will include ceremonial wreath placements on each of the five D-Day invasion beaches, at Pointe Du Hoc, and include a Canadian Wreath presentation, according to a press release from Wreaths Across America. 

In preparing for this international event, Wreaths Across America has continued to discover Maine connections to this historic event.

Worcester said that the planning process for the Normandy partnership began in July, she was stunned when she learned that the Superintendent of the Normandy-American Cemetery hails from Maine. 

U.S. Army veteran Scott Desjardins, originally from Madawaska now oversees the final resting place of thousands of soldiers who died during the D-Day landings in World War II. 

“The mission of the American Battle Monuments Commission is to honor the service, achievements, and sacrifices of our U.S armed forces in two World Wars. It closely parallels the mission of the Wreaths Across America organization — to Remember, Honor and Teach,” said Scott Desjardins, Superintendent, Normandy American Cemetery. “The Normandy American Cemetery is proud and pleased to be the first ABMC cemetery to have been chosen to attempt this important endeavor. As we approach the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings, conducted to establish a foothold in Western Europe to free it from tyranny, the Wreaths Across America organization storms the beaches of Normandy to establish a foothold and commemorate the sacrifice made by the men and women who never returned home and are now memorialized in our sites.”

Worcester said that one of the biggest obstacles was coordinating with regulatory agencies in both the United States and France to import the approximately 9,600 wreaths from Maine. 9.387 will adorn headstones in the cemetery and others will be placed at significant markers including memorials around Normandy Beach. 

On September 11, France sent Wreaths Across America a list of conditions for the import, Worcester said. 

“So many people have reached out to us,” Worcester said. “This is exactly the right time for this.” 

Once the wreaths are placed on December 1 during a noontime ceremony, the organization Memory of Normandy will do a projected illumination of a candle on each headstone. Worcester said a group will work to photograph each headstone so that family members of the deceased can have an opportunity to see their loved one’s stone. 

“We are so honored to be able to attend,” Worcester said. “We are going to try to capture everything we can.”

One of the honored guests expected to attend the Normandy wreath-laying ceremony Dec. 1, is WWII veteran, Pvt. Charles N. Shay, 92, a member of the Penobscot nation who now resides in France. Additionally, ceremonial guests will include the American Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy in France, Henry Wooster, who a native of Thomaston, Maine. 

“I cannot wait to meet them,” Worcester said. 

She added that Desjardins has invited students from 72 schools to attend the ceremony. 

“For those kids to be able to hear Mr. Shay speak is just amazing,” Worcester said. 

Worcester and her family left Maine November 29 to attend the ceremony in France. 

“My 10-year-old son keeps saying, ‘I just can’t wait to be part of this,” Worcester said.