and a family and a story. they aren t just tombstones. those are all people. 30 years later in 1992, worchester was running his own wreath company in harrington, maine. but as christmas approached, he had a bunch left over. these wreaths were real fresh, just made, and i just didn t want to throw them away. he thought of arlington and all those graves. when the cemetery approved, he and a dozen volunteers drove the wreaths down and laid them on the headstones. and so it continued for years until a few christmases back when an air force sergeant took this picture, which ended up on the internet. it kind of struck a nerve and people e-mailed it to each other, and it really went around the world. we were there the next year as he and his workers at the worchester wreath company loaded up 5,265 wreaths.
then they embarrassed on what worchester calls the world s largest veterans parade, a 750-mile journey that at some points attracted more than 100 vehicles. and when they got to arlington, so many people wanted to participate. the ceremony you about to witness is an army wreath laying ceremony. for years, worchester paid for all of this out of his own pocket, and he started wreaths across america, sending hundreds to cemeteries and war memorials around the country. but he will need help to reach his new goal. i think around 2.7 million graves, and that s a tall order to decorate 2.7 million graves. but you d like to do it, wouldn t you? i really would, yeah. sometime, i don t know how, but, hey, you know how long are you going to keep doing this? i m going to keep doing it for as long as i work, and then i know my family is going to