Veterans Honored During Wreaths Across America Ceremony
By JOE POTTER
Dade City Cemetery was the site on Dec. 13 for the second annual Wreaths Across America ceremony held by the City.
About 50 people attended the ceremony held at the cemetery located at 38151 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
William “Will” Toner, the City’s Public Works director, was the Master of Ceremonies for the event.
He said the ceremony was just one of more than 1,100 similar ceremonies that were being held at memorial sites across the United States.
The U.S. was founded on ideals of freedom, justice and equality, Toner said. “We thank those who gave their lives to keep us free. We shall not forget you,” he added.
“The freedoms we have today have not came without a price,” Toner said.
He then quoted Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, who said on July 6, 1987, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Toner thanked veterans who served and who are serving and said it was an honor to know them.
The U.S. Armed Forces are the best-trained and best-equipped forces in the world, Toner said.
He thensaidthat the job military veterans are doing is to protect the freedoms people now enjoy.
“Our nation stands as a shining beacon of liberty and freedom to the world. This nation has always been the first to stand up for the freedom of people around the world,” Toner said.
The volunteers who attended the ceremony were then asked to place wreaths at the graves of the 192 veterans who are interred at Dade City Cemetery, which was founded more than 100 years ago. The first burials occurred there in 1884 with the start of the City.
“We are not here today to not remember their deaths but their lives,” Toner said.
He concluded the program by asking people who were placing wreaths at veterans graves to say the person’s name as the wreath was being placed there.
City Clerk Angela “Angie” Guy who helped to organize this event previously said research is continuing and the graves of more veterans may be identified in time for next year’s Wreaths Across America ceremony that will be held there.
