By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
WESTON—Weston paid tribute to the 535 United States veterans buried in Weston Cemetery on Saturday during the village’s first-time involvement in Wreaths Across America.
For several years, Weston native Joe Schroeder had quietly sponsored a Wreaths Across America wreath at Arlington National Cemetery for his great uncle James W. Cline, who was a gunnery sergeant in the U.S. Marines before his death in 1970.
Schroeder had learned about Wreaths Across America which first placed wreaths on all the veterans’ graves at the Virginia cemetery before the mission to remember the fallen, honor those who serve, and teach the next generation the value of freedom became a nationwide initiative.
When a cousin’s daughter joined the Navy in 2018 and his son Aaron joined the Army in 2020, he sponsored two more wreaths in their honor.
“I’ve always been patriotic, but we had never really been a military family until my son joined the Army,” Schroeder said. “And just like that, my patriotism soared to new heights.”
The success of the Hometown Heroes project in Weston which honored past and current men and women in the military with ties to the village, prompted Schroeder to think about being a location coordinator and bringing Wreaths Across America to the town, like what Webster Township in the Pemberville-Luckey area had started.
He shared the idea with the Weston Cemetery Board and received unanimous approval.
Schroeder was overwhelmed when he learned there were 535 veterans at Weston Cemetery, but he knew “a lot of old Weston was represented in the Grand Army of the Republic during the Civil War,” as evidenced by the Civil War monuments that flank the entrance off of Center Street. The Taylors and Keelers, Weston’s founding families, were members of the Grand Army, he said.
“It seemed very daunting until I got a call from Debbie Roe-Vollmar, a Weston resident who is a Modern Woodmen agent,” Schroeder said. She offered to help sponsor wreaths, and fairly quickly, they were at 25% of the total.
“I would have been happy with 150 wreaths the first year,” he said. When the deadline for ordering wreaths passed, Weston’s Wreaths Across America reached 449 sponsored wreaths, and he was ecstatic.
When JRK Trucking delivered the wreaths to the cemetery, the driver told Schroeder he had never seen a first-time event receive 34 boxes of wreaths.
At Saturday’s ceremonial event, Weston joined nearly 4,600 other locations across the country this year.
After the ceremony in the warmth of Sonlight Church, the caravan of approximately 30 cars traveled down Taylor Street to Center Street and Oak Street to take in the Hometown Heroes banners before reaching the cemetery.
At the ceremony
“The freedoms we enjoy today have not come without a price,” Schroeder said during the pre-ceremony at Sonlight Church and Community Center. “Our nation stands as a shining beacon of liberty and freedom to the world, and we thank those who gave their lives to keep us free. We will not forget you. We will remember.”
He also acknowledged and thanked the nation’s veterans who fought and active-duty service members who continue to fight for and protect the innocent and oppressed.
“In Weston, we know that patriotism isn’t just a word, but a living, breathing spirit that thrives in the heart of our community,” said Weston Mayor Jeremy Schroeder, Joe’s brother. “Our veterans who answered the call to duty are our neighbors, our friends, our family members.”
Jeremy Schroeder also thanked the many volunteers, including the 54 wreath sponsors and the dozens of individuals and families who took time to help lay the 449 sponsored wreaths.
Among them were Weston Village Council member Jessica Susor, her nine-year-old son Colton Lee and her mother, LuAnn Hunt, who laid a wreath of the grave of Perry Bechstein. Bechstein, who was father to LuAnn, grandfather to Jessica and great-grandfather to Colton, enlisted in the Army in March 1941, trained to be a medic and served his country abroad before returning to Weston following his discharge.
Kerry and Chris Berry of Grand Rapids had the privilege of placing wreaths for several of Kerry’s relatives, including her grandfather and great-grandfather.
Robin Kaiser, a member of the cemetery board, honored her grandfather, Melvin B. Merrill, who was a former Weston mayor and a Navy veteran; father, Ronald “Moose” Merrill, a corporal in the U.S. Army in Korea; and her brother Ronald “Mike” Merrill, who joined the U.S. Army after high school, served in Frankfurt, Germany for three years and served in the Army Reserves until he died in 1984.
Danette Rodesky of Bowling Green volunteered on Saturday to honor Weston’s fallen veterans. A 33-year Army and Army National Guard veteran herself, Rodesky said she never had the opportunity to participate before. Still, when she saw that Weston had over 400 wreaths to lay, she knew they probably needed some help.
“On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your service,” she said after laying wreaths on the gravesites and offering an official salute. “This was an opportunity to show respect for my brothers and sisters at arms,” she said.
Local Wreaths Across America ceremonies were also held in Bowling Green, hosted by the Bowling Green Women’s Club, Paul C. Ladd VFW Post and the American Legion, and in the Pemberville-Luckey area, hosted by the Eastwood Key Club, Freedom American Legion Auxiliary Unit #183 Pemberville, and Troy-Webster American Legion Auxiliary Unit #240 Luckey.
