City of Mesquite Texas issued the following announcement.
The City of Mesquite announced the new Mesquite Veterans Memorial has been chosen to be one of more than 2,100 participating locations around the world for the Wreaths Across America program on Saturday, Dec. 19. The memorial, dedicated in November 2020, is located at 425 S. Galloway Avenue and will feature six live balsam wreaths from Maine placed at the memorial.
Wreaths Across America is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization’s mission is to Remember, Honor, Teach and is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at more than 2,100 veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and overseas. Wreaths Across America Executive Director Karen Worcester said, “We are not here to ‘decorate graves.’ We are here to remember not their deaths, but their lives.”
The Mesquite Veterans Memorial is located near City Lake Park. It features two 14-foot wide walls with six medallions of veterans groups (Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Merchant Marine, Navy) on the front side and six history panels of modern-era wars facing the park. A center column is 7-feet wide and lists the 47 names of all military veterans from the Mesquite community who lost their lives while in service. The column is highlighted by a 3-foot in diameter bronze seal of the United States of America. A bronze American Bald Eagle, with a 5-foot wing span, rests atop the memorial. The Walk of Honor, with bricks purchased by the community, create an entryway that welcomes visitors to a plaza area enhanced by a 14-foot wide granite star and four benches named Service, Sacrifice, Honor and Freedom.
The concept to build the memorial was led by the local grass-roots efforts of the Heroes of Mesquite and was funded in part through community fundraising and corporate donations, highlighted by the title sponsorship of Atmos Energy.
Original source can be found here.
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