(Radio Iowa) – Volunteers in Sioux City’s Memorial Park Cemetery placed over 44-hundred wreaths at the gravesides of veterans today (Friday). Rene LaPierre, commander of American Legion Post 697, is the person who lead the effort for the “Wreaths Across America” program to reach his community.

One of the graves in Sioux City decorates in the “Wreaths Across America” effort. (Photo by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)

Some of today’s (Friday’s) volunteers were able to lay a wreath on a family member’s gravestone. LaPierre says as each wreath was laid, the volunteer honored the veteran by saying his or her name aloud.

Great West Casualty Company is one of the contributors. Mandy Graham is the company’s chief operating officer.

The event began with a ceremony at the cemetery, as wreaths were presented for each branch of the military and those missing in action. Similar ceremonies are scheduled December 14th other Iowa cemeteries, including the Iowa Veterans Cemetery near Van Meter and at the Iowa Veterans Home Cemetery in Marshalltown. According to the Wreaths Across America website, about more than a dozen other Iowa cemeteries are having wreath-laying ceremonies.