Wreaths Across America mobile exhibit stops in Berks for weekend

By Steven Henshaw, Reading Eagle

Carol Fisher and Bill Hay live near some of America’s most hallowed soil, the crash site of the United Airlines Flight 93 in Somerset County.

Fisher, 76, drove a bus that shuttled loved ones to the crash site about 2 miles north of Shanksville where 40 passengers and crew members lost their lives on 9/11. A national memorial and museum was constructed near the western Pennsylvania site.

Hay, 69, said he felt the ground shake when the jetliner went nose-first into a farm field.

Fisher lost her husband, a Green Beret who served in the Vietnam War, in 2016 from the effects of Agent Orange. She and Hay, a widower and Vietnam veteran himself, were already acquainted and began a relationship.

Perhaps it was fate that brought them to the Cabela’s outdoor megastore near Hamburg during a two-hour side trip Saturday for the Carlisle Chrysler Nationals car show. Outside the store, the nonprofit organization, Wreaths Across America, had the welcome mat out for a mobile outreach education trailer.

After seeing a short film on the history, meaning and purpose of the organization, Fisher left the trailer sobbing. That brought her partner to tears.

In the video, the mother of a young man who joined the Army Rangers following 9/11 and died in a helicopter crash tells how much it means to see a veteran’s wreath placed on her son’s grave each December.

Wreaths Across America was founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992.

The organization’s mission — Remember, Honor, Teach — is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.

One of the wreath-laying sites is Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in northern Lebanon County.

“This Wreaths Across American mobile exhibition travels across the country and if you’re lucky enough to get them to come to your outreach it’s a wonderful opportunity,” said Beth Sattizahn, volunteer location coordinator with Indiantown Gap National Cemetery Friends of Wreaths Across America.

The exhibit is free and any donations go to support the wreath-laying ceremony in December at the Indiantown Gap cemetery.

“We were originally scheduled in the beginning of March,” she said. “Obviously, that was not going to happen. So we got a last-minute call and it works out that they stopped here today.

Cabela’s was so gracious in agreeing to have us come back.”

The pop-up exhibit continues Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., the group will host the exhibit outside Mission BBQ on Paper Mill road in Wyomissing.

“We tell people what Wreaths Across America is all about: remembering the fallen, honoring those who still serve and teaching our future generations about the value and price of freedom,” Sattizahn siad. “This year, we’ll ship about 2.5 million wreaths across the country to over 2,600 locations. All of the wreaths are sponsored by corporations, by family and friends of veterans or by patriots who want to be part of the mission of remembering the fallen.”

Hay said he was touched by the display because he remembers when Vietnam veterans like himself were treated with disrespect when they returned from Southeast Asia.

Another Vietnam veteran, Paul Landry, 78, of Myerstown, takes part in events that remember and honor those who never came back from war.

He was honored with a pin Saturday from Wreaths for his service.

Glen Mittermeier, Fort Indiantown Gap Fish & Game Conservation Club, made a trip to Cabela’s from Lebanon County to make a donation on behalf of his club to Wreaths.

“We’re stationed out there (at the Gap) so we honor our veterans,” Mittemeier said of the club.

Hay said things have changed in 50 years.

"It's a lot different than when we first came back," Hay said. "I remember people would call us names and even spit on us."

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