Photo furnished
Vietnam Veteran and Post 725 member David Smith and his six year old grandson, Johnny Richter, lay a wreath on a grave, and a reader reads aloud the memorial.

•December 19, 2018•

By Leslie Richter
For the News Progress

More than 50 veterans, family and community members gathered at the cemetery in Windsor (along Route 32) on Sunday, December 16 to lay wreaths on the graves of veterans as part of the Wreaths Across America campaign.
This is the first year for such a program in the community and is a result of cooperation with American Legion member Joe Hampton, wife Anne and his daughter Heather, a 4-H leader in the Nokomis area who had this as a community service project for her 4-H club.
When the truck driver arrived at their stop near Nokomis, he had approximately 200 extra wreaths on the truck with no place to deliver them to. So, it was only natural for Heather to ask her dad and the Legion, along with her nieces’ and nephews’ 4-H club, to help bring this program to them.
Enter the Windsor community. Legion members discussed this unique opportunity to participate in Wreaths Across America, and then quickly put a plan into action. Using social media and making phone calls to the local 4-H club and FFA chapter, the American Legion and Auxiliary members recruited over 50 volunteers in less than 24 hours.
While there were not enough wreaths for all the veterans’ headstones this year, the group didn’t want to miss out on participating in this program. “This is something we’d like to do next year and have already had some donations for next year’s supply of wreaths,” said Legion member David Smith.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.