St. Joseph Cemetery and Mausoleum, Toms River, will join more than 1,600 cemeteries nationwide Dec. 14 in showing gratitude for military veterans’ service.

The National Wreaths Across America Day – which honors deceased military veterans, veterans missing in action and prisoners of war with a wreath placed upon a gravesite – will be celebrated for the first time at the Toms River cemetery. All are welcome to attend the ceremony, which will take place at noon outside on the cemetery grounds.

“We should all feel, as a nation, our gratitude for veterans who have passed, and for those still with us today,” said Carol Koch, a member of the town’s St. Joseph Parish who assists in the cemetery. “It’s not political, and it’s completely open to the public.”

The event will open with the Pledge of Allegiance, and include a color guard, active members from all five branches of the U.S. Military and the R.O.T.C. Club of Toms River’s High School North. Father Scott Shaffer, pastor of St. Joseph Parish, will offer an invocation; the national anthem and “God Bless America” will be sung, and the ceremony will finish with the playing of TAPS on the bugle.

Volunteers – including anyone in attendance who wishes to participate – will assist in placing wreaths on the marked graves of military veterans, following a specific request to speak the veteran’s name aloud and to express thanks for his or her service.

The addition of St. Joseph Cemetery and Mausoleum to the roster of Wreaths Across America sites came about in large part because of the attention of Koch, who is a Gold Star Mother – a parent who has lost a child in military service.

“As Gold Star Mothers, our job is to help the veterans in any way we can,” she explained. “I had an opportunity a few years ago to meet with other Gold Star Mothers in Maine,” the tree farm of Worcester Wreath Company, where Wreaths Across America began. Their tree program, Koch said, allows parents and Gold Star Mothers to choose a tree to mark with their child’s dog tags. “Every several years, they clip those trees and use the greens for the wreaths used for Wreaths Across America.”

After that experience, Koch asked Father Shaffer if St. Joseph’s could be a location for the program, and he was very supportive.

“Every veteran should be honored by a wreath on their grave, to say thank you for their service,” Koch said. “I find it a very humbling experience.”

Worcester Wreath Company owner, Morrill Worcester, founded Wreaths Across America with his wife and executive director, Karen, and they have been sending hundreds of thousands of wreaths around the country and overseas for 14 years – but the donation of wreaths had begun quietly in 1992, when Worcester found he had a surplus of wreaths at the end of the holiday season.

Remembering a boyhood trip to Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, and the impression it left upon him, he sought the assistance of Maine Sen. Olympia Snow, and arrangements were made for the wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older sections of the cemetery with fewer visitors.

Other organizations joined the cause, and the donations and wreath-laying ceremonies continued without fanfare – until 2005, when a now well-known photo of the wreaths on graves at Arlington went viral. Requests began pouring in, leading to the founding of the nonprofit in 2007. Individuals and organizations can now sponsor wreaths through the organization’s website.

“It’s very special,” Koch said of the annual event. “We remind people that we’re not decorating – we’re placing wreaths on veterans’ graves and celebrating not their death, but their lives.”