WASHINGTONVILLE — Employees at Kohl’s Stony Hill Tree Farm have made 13 percent of the 1,600 blue spruce wreaths needed for the “Wreaths for Our Warriors” project that honors veterans buried in Valley cemeteries.
Kohl’s, near Washingtonville, will need to make 1,600 wreaths for the project, according to owner Stan Kohl.
The business will use a large trailer to deliver the wreaths Dec. 5 to locations in Union and Snyder counties and on Dec. 6 to the marina at Shikellamy State Park. The wreaths will have a police escort when they are taken to Riverview Cemetery in Northumberland.
This is the fourth year for the project honoring veterans of all wars buried in cemeteries in Snyder, Union and Northumberland counties.
Chris Kerwin, who lives near Northumberland, started the Valley program after reading about the national program at Arlington National Cemetery.
“He stopped by my tree lot in Northumberland right before Christmas,” Kohl said. “We made 75 wreaths that year. It was a start.”
That was when Kohl’s had a market near Northumberland. They closed it last year because they are too busy at the farm, he said.
Kerwin said about 1,500 smaller wreaths and 75 larger wreaths will be made this year.
“Kohl’s also donates some,” Kerwin said. “They charge us a very favorable price. We get contributions from businesses, the community and individuals.”
Volunteers place a red bow atop each wreath. Volunteers, including area veterans, add an American flag to each wreath. The flags are made in the Pittsburgh area, Kohl said.
Wreaths are leaned against gravestones and monuments as they are at Arlington.
Among the volunteers who help with the project are Dick Simpson, of Northumberland, Ron Cowan, of Selinsgrove, and Joe Hutton, of New Columbia.
Kohl’s, which is along Mexico Road, began as a small Christmas tree farm in 1986 when the owner purchased a rundown farm on 39 acres with about 2,000 evergreen trees in one field. The first year they cut some of the trees and sold them at his grandparents’ market in the Northumberland area.
Through the years, they have added products and services such as wreaths and drilled trees.
In 2002, they started their largest addition with construction of a 4,800-square-foot Christmas Shoppe, where the wreaths are made along with centerpieces, cemetery blankets and headstone bouquets.
They also have more than 50,000 ornaments displayed on trees on two floors and Pennsylvania’s largest Christmas tree stand collection, featuring more than 450 stands from the 1800s to the present day from all over the world.
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Robert Inglis / The Daily Item
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1,600 wreaths being made for veterans' graves
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