‘It’s Our Duty to Remember Them’

Wreaths Across America: New area coordinator plans Dec. 13 event to honor veterans buried at Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery

By Mary Beth Roach

 

At dusk each night, “Taps” is played at the Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Howlett Hill Road on Onondaga Hill.

For decades, when Ellen and Bob McCauley have heard those somber notes from their home nearby, they’ve paused their evening activities for a moment and placed their hands over their hearts.

Now, in her first year as coordinator for Onondaga County’s Wreaths Across America at the Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery, McCauley is taking her reverence to a new level.

As part of her duties in this volunteer role, she will plan a small ceremony to begin the wreath-laying event at 9 a.m. on Dec. 13 and coordinate the efforts of dozens of volunteers who will then gather that morning to place hundreds of wreaths on the gravesites of the veterans buried at the cemetery and to say the name of each veteran as they do it.

McCauley’s work started long before that winter morning in December. As Wreaths Across America area coordinator, she has been fundraising at various events to purchase as many wreaths as possible. During the week leading up to the ceremony, she and a corps of volunteers will meet a tractor-trailer at the cemetery and they will clear the grave markers, shoveling off any snow that there might be. In the weeks that follow, she is hoping to pull together people who will visit the cemetery daily and reset any wreaths that might have blown over. On Jan. 31, she will again assemble a group of volunteers to remove the wreaths, which are then recycled.

McCauley’s goal is to get as many wreaths as possible and her ultimate goal someday would be to have a wreath for each of the 6,285 graves at the cemetery.  Currently, there are more than 8,700 individuals, including veterans, spouses and dependent children, buried in the cemetery.

For McCauley, the balsam wreaths symbolize tribute.

“It’s the remembrance. Many buried here gave their last full measure of devotion. They died in Vietnam, in Korea, in the Gulf War. They were injured. They were harmed. They had post-traumatic stress. They went because our country asked them to. So, it is not just something we should do to be nice. It’s our duty to remember them. It’s our duty to make sure that they are not forgotten.”

And the work allows her to continue a pledge she made to herself in the 1970s, an era that saw a great deal of unrest and turmoil in the country.

“I graduated from high school in 1972. I saw the young men of our generation be drafted into Vietnam. I saw the way they were treated when they came home. So, I vowed in 1974, when I was a sophomore in college, if I can do anything the rest of my life to make sure the veterans know how much they’re appreciated, I promise to do that. And my mother taught my sisters and I that freedom isn’t free.”

The final years of her career allowed her to continue that promise.

After 30 years in sales, McCauley went on to work for Onondaga County for 15 years, the last nine as the public information specialist for the Department of Adult & Long Term Care Services, which included the Office for the Aging, Adult Protective Services, New York Connects, Mental Health and the Veterans Service Agency. She retired in 2023.

The Onondaga County event, which began in 2017 with the Farone Funeral Home taking on the coordinating duties, is one of approximately 5,200 ceremonies that will take place in cemeteries across the country — all on Dec. 13 and all underscoring the motto of “Remember, Honor and Teach.”

“The most important things are that we remember the fallen, honor those who serve, and teach the next generation the value of freedom,” McCauley said.

The deadline for sponsoring a wreath for this year has passed, but individuals, groups, organizations or businesses can donate toward one wreath for 2026 for $17 each.

To sponsor a wreath or to volunteer, visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/NY0541.

For each group that sponsors a wreath, the Onondaga County Wreaths Across America receives $5 toward another wreath.

For more information, call  315-447-4676 or email elmccauley625@gmail.com