Donations Needed to Keep Wreath Tradition Alive

The annual tradition of laying wreaths at the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) State Veterans Cemetery suffered from a lack of donations this year, and some headstones will remain bare this Christmas.

 

George Rice, the on-site representative of the Veterans Land Board under the Texas General Land Office, said 2024 is the first year there weren’t enough donations to buy wreaths for all headstones.

 

“The wreath laying project is all donation-based,” Rice said. “Donations come through Wreaths Across America (WAA) or American Legion 101.”

 

 

Amber Caron, director of communications for WAA, said 528 wreaths were sponsored for the RGV State Veterans Cemetery through that non-profit organization; there are currently 2,400 headstones at the site.

 

Rice said a decision had to be made for the wreath donations the cemetery did receive.

 

“We covered our two newest sections,” Rice said. “In those sections, everyone laid to rest arrived in the last 60 to 90 days, so the loss is still very fresh for those families, this is their first Christmas without them. We covered those headstones first.”

 

Rice said 300 wreaths then remained available to be placed by families who attended the wreath ceremony on December 14.

 

“Some people were upset that they couldn’t just pick up wreaths and take them to another cemetery,” Rice said. “Others were mad that there wasn’t a wreath specifically for their family, but unfortunately that’s not how this works.

 

“In previous years, we were fortunate to have large private donors who covered the costs of the wreaths for everyone, and that didn’t happen this year. The bulk of the donations do not come from families in this area,” Rice said.

 

 

Rice said he believes the public is confused about the source of the holiday wreaths, adding that he received about 50 to 60 complaints per day this week about the wreath laying program.

 

“People called to complain and said they never had to donate before,” Rice said. “That’s because someone was privately donating for them, and I don’t think they understood that. I think this is a problem we all want to fix, and the community will need to get involved for that to happen.

 

“We did everything we could to get the word out,” Rice said. “We printed physical flyers, we promoted on social media, we even informed funeral directors, and we sounded the alarm six months ago when we were only at 12 percent of our usual donation level, but nothing worked.”

 

The cost of each wreath is $17, which covers a fresh wreath, a red ribbon and transport of the wreath to the cemetery for placement at a headstone. An artificial wreath can be donated for a cost of $5.

 

 

Contributions are accepted at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/TXRGSV and donors can designate the cemetery where the wreath will be placed. In this case, donors would specify the Rio Grande Texas State Cemetery in Mission on the donation website.

 

Donors can also contact Lucio Gaitan at American Legion Post 101 in Pharr, by calling 956-867-1680 to arrange a contribution.

 

“I hope that people will choose to be involved in this program going forward and help us raise funds to blanket the cemetery in wreaths for all of our veterans, and not show up the day of the event expecting to be given a wreath. I hope we can fix this together, because this event will always rely on public donations,” Rice said.

 

Rice said funds received from the state or the city can only be used for operational costs of the cemetery.

 

Donations of about $40,800 would be needed to provide a fresh wreath for each headstone here, and he’s been studying the pros and cons of different wreaths for some time.

 

“It might seem to some that the artificial wreath might be the way to go,” Rice said. “But then we’ll need storage costs and then resources to get them back out of storage and to and from the cemetery, so I’m not sure that’s a real cost savings.”

 

The Rio Grande Valley State Cemetery is not the only burial site which suffered from a shortage of wreath contributions.

 

“Our closest counterpart is Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio,” Rice said. “They were only able to cover somewhere between seven to eight thousand headstones this year.”

 

 

Fort Sam Houston has over 180,000 burial sites and would need over $3 million in donations to place a wreath at each headstone.

 

Caron said the next wreath laying ceremony is December 13, 2025, at 12 noon at the cemetery, and the WAA website accepts contributions all year long.

 

Rice said the next big ceremony at the cemetery is on Memorial Day in May of 2025.

 

“GLO Commissioner Dawn Buckingham will be here for Memorial Day, and we hope Governor Greg Abbott will also make it when we illuminate the avenue of flags,” Rice said.