By YM/LCPL Aylei Connolly Westover (MA) On Saturday December, 17, The Westover (MA) Young Marines participated in the Wreaths Across America. It was a great opportunity to pay our respects to the veterans who have passed on fighting for our freedom in a world they did not live to see. Wreaths Across America had more than 4000 wreaths from our support and donations to put on the headstones of fallen veterans. There were hundreds of people who came to help even though there was at least 6 inches of snow, and more falling! The snowfall was so thick that some of the wreaths were buried in snow and at times I could not see my hand in front of my frozen face. I am very thankful to the Young Marines for giving me this experience. I am 11 years old, and I look ahead to many op- portunities to come as well! Thank you Young Marines for helping shape my life. Semper Fi Young Marines! By YM/LCPL Aylei Connolly of fallen veterans. There were hundreds of people who Westover: We Placed Our Wreaths as a Heavy Snow Fell 18 YOUNG MARINES ESPRIT ONLINE By YM/Sgt Cailin Christoforo Manassas (VA) Our project started on December 17th when bad weather caused our unit to cancel its participation in placing wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery with Wreathes Across Amer- ica. We promised to visit the father of one of my mom’s high school friends from Naples, Italy to take a picture of his grave and place a wreath on it for his fam- ily. We also received a few pic- ture requests from families of Young Marines and others who could not make it to Arlington themselves. We decided to go later in the day when the roads were clear. Since we didn’t get to help place the wreaths ear- lier, we posted an offer on the Arlington National Cemetery and Wreaths Across America Facebook pages to take photos of graves with wreaths for loved ones who were too far away or unable to visit Arling- ton themselves. We were flooded with requests within minutes. The first grave we visited was for the father of my Mom’s friend, Jo- seph C. Hartley, 1SG, US Army, Vietnam. We fulfilled the re- quests we came with, visited the grave of the father of our Adjutant, John J. Chada, US Army/US Navy, who died in the Pentagon on 9/11. We took photos of 23 graves in seven sections.We had so many photos to take that we didn’t leave until after the sun went down. We returned on December 23rd, to fulfill as many of the requests from our earlier visit as we could.While in Section 60,I found a stray poppy wreath that had blown away. We looked up the name on the wreath in the ANC app to locate where it belonged. It belonged on grave number 10464, in which 7 Marines who perished in a training accident were buried together. We squared away the wind- blown wreaths and tributes, and paid our respects, saying the name of each of the Ma- rines buried there. We visited 16 sections and took pictures of 43 graves,again leaving well after dark. In total, we visited 66 graves in 20 sections,saying the name of each of those buried in that sacred ground. All of the pictures were posted onto our unit’s Facebook page, and we messaged the people who requested photos. We re- ceived many messages and comments of heartfelt thanks. This was an amazing experience from which I learned a lot. I encourage other Young Marine units to offer to go beyond just laying wreathes on graves, but to offer to take pictures for families. In doing this, we honor and remember these heroes, and their loved ones who are too far away to visit them during the holidays. Our Gift to Families With Loved Ones Buried at Arlington