Times Observer file photo Nancy Pratt places a wreath on the grave of her father, Leighton Thorpe, a U.S. Army veteran of World War II, during a Wreaths Across America observance held last year at the Wesleyan Cemetery in Lander. The Blue Star Mothers of Kinzua are bringing the program to St. Joseph Cemetery in Pleasant Township this year.

The Wreaths Across America project is coming to St. Joseph Cemetery in Pleasant Twp.

The Blue Star Mothers of Kinzua PA 203 have partnered with the cemetery for an event set for Dec. 16.

“There are approximately 400 veterans buried at St. Joe’s Cemetery and it is our hope that we can place a wreath at every one of these sites,” the Blue Star Mothers said in a letter.

“We are bringing this project to Warren for the first time,” Patti Colosimo told the Times Observer

The cost to place a wreath is $17 and wreaths can be purchased at wreathsacrossamerica.org/PA0784 through Nov. 1. That site shows that 230 wreaths – 54 percent of the goal – were sponsored as of Monday.

Monetary donations can also be sent to the Blue Star Mothers by mail to PO Box 324, Warren, Pa., 16365.

“Your contributions to this mission will allow us to remember our deceased veterans…. Honor our deceased veterans…. And teach our children and grandchildren the meaning of the sacrifice these veterans gave for the freedoms we have today,” they say.

“As Karen Worchester, the executive director of Wreaths Across America stated, ‘We are not here to decorate graves, we are here to remember not their deaths but their lives.'”

A ceremony will be Dec. 16 at noon for volunteers and family members to place the wreaths.

The name of the individual will be said aloud along with a moment of silence at each grave.