  Giving
Thanks
Morrill Worcester spends his holidays reflecting on blessings won through others’ sacrifice.
By David Lauterborn
Each year in mid-December an unassuming middle-aged businessman from Maine slogs south to Virginia through holiday traffic to pay his respects at Arlington National Cemetery. The man is not a veteran, nor does he come to mourn a relative or close friend. Instead, he comes to commemorate others’ fallen children, spouses and parents through a simple act—the laying of a ceremonial wreath.
The man might escape notice were it not for one astonishing fact: Each year Morrill Worcester brings not one wreath but thousands to lean gently against the vanishing rows of etched headstones.
 President of Harrington-based Worcester Wreath Company, Morrill first garlanded Arlington’s monuments with his handmade wreaths in 1992. In the intervening years, he has rallied hundreds of volunteers to drape soldiers’ marble markers with more than 60,000 Maine balsam fir wreaths.
On Thursday, Dec. 14, members of the Maine State Society, Civil Air Patrol, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, as well as military units, civilian groups, schoolchildren and other citizens, will again gather at Arlington to distribute more than 5,000 Worcester wreaths. Also this year, as part of an expanded effort dubbed Wreaths Across America, Worcester will donate ceremonial garlands to each of the nation’s 230-plus state and national cemeteries and monuments.
When asked why, Morrill explains he is repaying a debt.
“I have a lot to be thankful for,” he says quietly, “and that has a lot to do with those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
He remains in awe of the cemetery he first saw as a boy. “It’s a tremendous honor and privilege to be able to do this. For the officials at the cemetery to take down the chain across President Kennedy’s grave and let you right into the site. To do a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. To allow us to decorate an entire section. If the [fallen] get their due, then I get my due.”
Back in 1961, as a 12-year-old Bangor Daily News paperboy, the would-be entrepreneur won a five-day trip to Washington, D.C., by signing up a host of new subscribers. The first glimpse of our nation’s capital is a thrill for any child, but at Arlington the boy was particularly struck by the sacrifice evident in row upon row of markers.
As a young man, Morrill ran three fruit and produce stands to pay his way through the University of Maine. What started as a side business, delivering a few dozen holiday wreaths to the New England Produce Center in Boston, would grow into a multimillion-dollar enterprise that distributes more than half a million wreaths nationwide each year.
As his fortunes rose, Morrill never forgot what he saw at Arlington and what it meant toward achieving the blessings of a successful business and large family (Morrill and wife Karen are the parents of six children). Humbled, he considered ways he might honor our fallen troops.
In 1992 opportunity arose in the form of surplus holiday wreaths. Morrill looked into donating the wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery. Others were quick to extend advice, time and their own heartfelt sacrifices.
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe helped Morrill with the initial arrangements. James Prout, owner of Blue Bird Ranch, donated a truck to ship the wreaths to Virginia. Local American Legion and VFW volunteers decorated the wreaths with hand-tied red bows, while members of the Maine State Society worked with Arlington Superintendent John Metzler Jr. to organize the wreath-laying and a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. That first year a handful of participants spent five to six hours adorning headstones in a time-forgotten corner of the cemetery.
Each year since, Worcester Wreath Company has set aside garlands for the service, rather than donate surplus wreaths. The cemetery assigns a section to the project, and volunteers also lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the Maine Memorial and the graves of John and Robert Kennedy and former Maine Governor, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Edmund Muskie. Project volunteers now number in the hundreds. What used to take half a day now takes about an hour, leaving volunteers time to reflect.
What goes through Morrill’s mind as the last wreaths are placed?
“I started the wreath business in 1971, and I was 21 years old. And if you look at all the people who were killed in combat for America over all of the conflicts that we’ve had, they average 21 years old. I’ve had a tremendous experience in life. Those people never had what I had, and yet they’re the ones who made it possible for me and everyone else.
“If I could, I’d decorate every one of them.”
To participate in the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National
Cemetery, contact Wayne Hanson of the Maine State Society at (703) 971-4148.
To contribute to the project, send donations to: Civil Air Patrol, Attn.
Wreaths Across America, P.O. Box 113, Columbia Falls, ME 04623.
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