LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Their goal is 11,000 wreaths for veterans headstones.
The goal is to place a holiday wreath on every veteran headstone at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery. There are about 11,000 headstones at Zachary Taylor and in recent years, organizers haven’t been able to hit that mark.
“As you can see by the tombstones, they just seem to stretch on and on,” Michael Lathon tells Spectrum News 1.
Lathon believes this could be the year, they collect enough donations to place a holiday wreath on every stone.
“We want to have every wreath in place before Christmas and so everybody can come out and visit their loved ones and see the respect the community has shown for the veterans,” Lathon said.
Not only is Lathon a Marine Corps and Persian Gulf War veteran, he’s also leading the fundraising effort for the national veterans’ organization, Senior Veterans, Inc. The goal is to raise enough money to purchase 11,000 wreaths by Nov. 30.
“The veterans deserve the respect, the veterans and their families for their sacrifice they’ve put in and every single one of these stones should have a wreath behind him,” Lathon adds.
A $15 donation pays for one wreath and collections are happening online. They will hold a ceremony on Dec. 17 where volunteers will place the wreaths on the stones.
“I see somebody right here who was from the Persian Gulf era, but you also have somebody right next to them who served in World War II,” Lathon said, looking on over the cemetery. Lathon served 22 years in the Marine Corps, but his service didn’t stop there.
His company Accon General Contractors employees as many veterans as he can recruit. In fact, one third of his staff served in uniform.
“We have everybody but the Navy, as a matter of fact. We have a few Marines. We have Army. We have Air Force but no Navy which is funny because I have two older brothers who served in the Navy, so we need to get a couple Navy on there,” Lathon says with a smile. That’ll be this Marine’s next mission, after he completes this one.