Wreaths across Cedar Grove

A mother’s wish to honor her son turns into a community endeavor

At Cedar Grove Cemetery in Bullitt County, you’ll find the final resting place of many veterans and former service members. Yet there’s one in particular that brings us today’s story.

Staff Sergeant Gary Lee Woods Jr., or just Lee to those who knew him, is one of those former service members buried at Cedar Grove. A native of Bullitt County and a graduate of Bullitt Central High School, he was killed in action while serving in the Army’s 4th Infantry Division in Mosul, Iraq, on April 10, 2009, the week of Easter.

Though she laid her son to rest back home in Bullitt County, Lee’s mother, Becky Johnson, did have one wish for her son, especially when the holiday season approached each year.

“As a Gold Star [parent], I knew that there was a Wreaths Across America [program], and that their main thing was that they did the national cemeteries,” she said. “And I always thought, ‘You know, Lee’s not in a national cemetery, I wish he was. I would love to let him have a wreath every year, just like the rest of them.”

Honor at home

Last year, that wish led Johnson to do a bit of research about the organization. Eventually, she learned that the highly recognizable program didn’t exist just for those whose final resting place were places like Arlington or Gettysburg; it could even be for a place like Cedar Grove Cemetery. She would have to include every veteran at the cemetery, because that’s what her son would want.

“Because Lee would tell me, ‘No mom, you’re not just putting one on my grave unless you put one on all the other ones!’ That’s the way he was with me,” she says, laughing. “I could hear him saying that [to me].”

To Johnson, the plan seemed simple enough: she would start with just Lee’s cemetery. But in the process, she was amazed to discover that the small cem­etery contained the graves of over 120 veterans, more than she had previously believed.

“I was in shock at how many veterans were in that cemetery,” she says.

But that didn’t deter Johnson, who, through community events and word of mouth, received enough wreath spon­sorships so that each veteran buried at the cemetery could have their own wreath. Getting the wreaths was one thing, but who would help her place them? Sure, she had raised awareness about the event with local military organizations and even Bullitt Central’s JROTC program, but she still wasn’t sure what people, if any, would show up.

“I figured the first year, I’ll be lucky if I get two or three people here to help me,” she explains.

But on the morning of December 16, known nationally as Wreaths Across America Day, Johnson says she was shocked to see an outpouring of community members who came to­gether for the single purpose of hon­oring just a handful of our country’s military heroes.

“I wanted to cry; I really did,” she says. “I never expected that many people to be there the first year. And when I had all those people show up … they just kept coming.”

American Legion members, parents with their children and even current members of Bullitt Central JROTC were just some of the many community members who helped place the wreaths. But for Johnson and her mission, this was just the beginning.

Not that she knew it at the time.

A growing mission

This year, Johnson is working to raise funds and gather enough donations not only for Cedar Grove’s 126 veterans, but for an additional 225 veterans at Lebanon Junction Cemetery.

“A lot of the ladies from the American Legion came and helped lay wreaths, and one lady said, ‘You need to do Lebanon Junction [city ceme­tery],’” Johnson recalled. ‘“Can’t you do Lebanon Junction, too?’”

“Still to this point, it scares me,” she says. “Last year when I was doing 126 wreaths, it scared me to death that I wasn’t going to come up with enough… because I can’t go there and not have a wreath for each grave.”

Though she admits getting enough sponsors for over 350 wreaths is a bit daunting, wreath sponsorships from com­munity organizations and individuals go a long way toward the goal of keeping alive the memories of veterans like her son, Lee.

“I’ve done everything I can that I think he’d say, ‘Yes mom, that’s what you need to do,’” she says.

Interested in sponsoring a wreath?

Visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/178359/Overview. There, you’ll find links to sponsor wreaths at both Cedar Grove Cemetery and Lebanon Junction City Cemetery, as well as times and dates for this year’s wreath laying ceremony.