Residents in the Historic Triangle had quite the year.
The coronavirus pandemic affected everything from daily tasks like shopping at grocery stores and helping kids with their school work to celebrations like graduations and weddings.
Essential workers worked overtime. Thousands of people lost their jobs and others worked from home. We visited loved ones on Zoom and learned new phrases like “social distancing,” “face masks” and “the new normal.” There were protests against police brutality and rallies for presidential candidates too.
Here are the events that shaped 2020.
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As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread in Virginia, localities are taking measures to prepare for potential outbreaks.(WYDaily/Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Cadence Smeltzer attends the wreath laying ceremony at Yorktown National Cemetery each December and helps place the wreaths on the graves of veterans, but this year created her own fundraising group, Freedomâs Cadence, in partnership with Wreaths Across America.
In the beginning of November when Wydaily interviewed Cadence and Vanessa Smeltzer, she was just shy of 377 wreaths.
Through her dedication and support of the community, Cadence was able to collect 1,100 wreaths. The 11-year-old ended the year raising $11,000 for Wreaths Across America.
With the buy two get one wreath offer, 1,100 wreaths were sponsored in total. Of those, 1,020 were taken to to Yorktown National Cemetery, 77 to Cedar Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth, and three to a small cemetery in New Jersey. Yorktown exceeded their goal by over 500 wreaths this year. Those excess wreaths were transferred to Arlington National Cemetery.