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BAY PINES, Fla. – Two of the Bay Area\u2019s largest national cemeteries,\u00a0Sarasota National Cemetery\u00a0and Bay Pines National Cemetery,\u00a0may not have enough wreaths to honor every veteran this holiday season<\/a>.<\/p>\n Organizers said Sarasota is less than halfway\u00a0to its goal, and Bay Pines sits at under 25%, with only 13% of the 35,000 needed wreaths\u00a0sponsored so far. Each wreath costs $17, and the deadline to sponsor one is end of day Sunday.<\/p>\n READ: Pinellas County deputies deliver Thanksgiving meals to families in need<\/a><\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n For more than 30 years, Wreaths Across America Day\u00a0has brought comfort and tradition to military families. The yearly ceremony ensures every fallen service member buried in a national cemetery is honored with a wreath symbolizing remembrance and gratitude.<\/p>\n For volunteer coordinator Ronalee Klase, the effort is personal. Her brother Billy, who is a Vietnam War veteran, is buried at Bay Pines. She\u2019s spent 12 years helping lead the cemetery\u2019s Wreaths Across America program through her work with the Civil Air Patrol.<\/p>\n Klase said the challenge of finding thousands of sponsors is nothing new, but this year\u2019s shortage is especially steep.<\/p>\n MORE: \u2018Dress a little better\u2019: Transportation secretary urges Americans to ditch pajamas, slippers at airport<\/a><\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n Klase said wreath-laying often gets overshadowed by other patriotic holidays: “They put the flags out for Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Somehow, Wreaths Across America just kind of gets waylaid.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Seeing so many headstones without wreaths is difficult, she added, “We\u2019re supposed to be honoring these men and women, and we\u2019re not.”<\/p>\n Timeline:<\/p>\n Wreaths Across America ceremonies take place nationwide n December 13. Bay Pines\u2019 ceremony will include a guest speaker, veterans representing each branch of service, and a final wreath placed in honor of POWs and MIAs.<\/p>\n Before that, local volunteers, many paying their own way, will travel to Maine to retrieve the wreaths and truck them back to the Bay Area.<\/p>\n READ: Presidential Turkey Pardons: Trump to spare Waddle, Gobble in White House tradition<\/a><\/p>\n What you can do:<\/p>\n The organization is hoping for a last-minute surge in sponsorships before Sunday\u2019s deadline. Without it, thousands of grave sites in the Bay Area could remain undecorated this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n To sponsor a wreath at Bay Pines, click here<\/a>. To become a wreath sponsor at Sarasota National Cemetery, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Source: This article is based on reporting from FOX 13\u2019s Jennifer Kveglis and interviews with Wreaths Across America volunteers, including Bay Pines coordinator Ronalee Klase.<\/p>\n St. Petersburg<\/a>Holidays<\/a>Veterans<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAY PINES, Fla. – Two of the Bay Area\u2019s largest national cemeteries,\u00a0Sarasota National Cemetery\u00a0and Bay Pines National Cemetery,\u00a0may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,1186,2583,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628,3393],"class_list":["post-61114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-holidays","tag-military","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/wreaths-across-america.jpg\")
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