{"id":95670,"date":"2025-12-25T15:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T15:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/95670\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T15:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T15:02:09","slug":"a-pine-wreath-and-a-pause-to-reflect-those-who-served-are-remembered-for-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/95670\/","title":{"rendered":"A pine wreath and a pause to reflect — those who served are remembered for the holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s no forgetting among brothers and sisters in arms.<\/p>\n

Every year during the holidays, veterans who have died over the years are remembered with fresh pine wreaths laid on their graves at cemeteries in Southwest Florida as well as across the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Mogadishu, Somalia, The Gulf, Oman,.” That’s combat veteran Chris Garrick from North Fort Myers \u2014 he’s well aware of the price of freedom and vows to never forget those who served, especially during the holiday season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 5000 plots to lay wreaths on,\u201c Garrick said.<\/p>\n

More<\/p>\n

At Coral Ridge Cemetery in Cape Coral, he\u2019s one of countless volunteers placing wreaths on grave sites in memory of his brothers- and sisters-in-arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to take care of those who came before us,” he said. “This is a part of it. They did their time. It is going to be us in the dirt one day. I just hope that somebody is there to look after me on the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cape Coral is one of more than a dozen cemetery locations in Southwest Florida participating in Wreaths Across America<\/a>. The actual wreath laying took place on the second Saturday in December.<\/p>\n

From Sarasota to Marco Island to LaBelle and even in tiny Ortona, volunteers placed at least 28,000 wreaths on the graves of veterans.<\/p>\n

Those efforts were made possible by donations from people like Gigi Thomas.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris Garrick, left, and Fed Monson, prepare to place wreaths at Coral Ridge Cemetery in Cape Coral. The two men were volunteering with the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association for the Wreaths Across America.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m with the 8463 VFW in Cape Coral,” she said. “We are in District 13 and District 13 donated almost 15,000 dollars towards the wreaths this year for the Gold Star moms. We sold candy bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grateful for the chance to help was 77-year-old Fred Monson, a Navy veteran from Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n

\u201c It is to honor them for their service, Monson said. “Some of them were probably killed in action. Some survived and lived a long life. \u201c<\/p>\n

The wreaths will remain on the graves through New Years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t do this for thanks. We don\u2019t do this for the praise. We do it for our brothers and sisters that are in the ground,\u201d Monson said.<\/p>\n

WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and\u00a0donate\u00a0<\/a>now. Thank you. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s no forgetting among brothers and sisters in arms. Every year during the holidays, veterans who have died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-95670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95670","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=95670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}