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Maine Youths Moved by Laying of Wreaths

December 21, 2009 - SKOWHEGAN -- "Do justice, walk humbly, love greatly."

Such words impressed students who traveled recently to Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C., for an annual pilgrimage to remember U.S. war veterans with Christmas wreaths from Maine.

Sixth-grader Benjamin Martin of the Margaret Chase Smith Elementary School was particularly taken by the advice from U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Michael M. McGreevy, who was killed in 2005 conducting combat operations in Afghanistan.

Benjamin was among nearly four dozen fifth- and sixth-graders, parents and a teacher from Skowhegan and Canaan who traveled this past week to the National Cemetery, where they placed Christmas wreaths on the graves of fallen veterans.

"They laid down the wreath and on a little slip of paper I wrote down Michael McGreevy's motto: 'Do justice, walk humbly, love greatly,' and I stuck it under the wreath because I thought it would be important," Benjamin Martin said. "It's very important, because it's pretty much how you should live your life; it's just a really great way to live.' "

The trek, paid for by local families and a nationwide network of donors established by teacher Larry Ross, was part of "Wreaths Across America," in which 15,000 wreaths from Maine were placed at the cemetery. Those wreaths were donated by Morrill Worcester of the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington.

Worcester also accepted donations of about 150,000 more wreaths to be placed at state and national veterans' cemeteries nationwide.

Ross' group from the Margaret Chase Smith school and the Canaan Elementary School, carried 37 wreaths donated locally by Ambrose "Tom" McCarthy of Skowhegan. It was Ross' seventh such trip.

"We have a little project within a project," Ross, 57, of Canaan, said of the annual event first begun by Worcester in 1993. "We're kind of like guests at Morrill's party and we help distribute those. This is a pay-as-you go program and kids who can't pay, I find somebody else who can help them pay."

Along the way, the Skowhegan group stopped in Augusta to place a wreath on the grave of U.S. Marine Corps. Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, who grew up in Skowhegan. Aubin died in a helicopter crash in Kuwait in March 2003.

The annual trip to Washington is to remember, to honor and to teach, the students said.

"I thought it would be a good opportunity to go down to Arlington to lay some of the wreaths on the graves," said sixth-grader Luke Sweet. "We did it to honor all the fallen soldiers in the wars because it's Christmastime – they shouldn't be forgotten.

"For all the fallen soldiers, their families are probably the only people who come and honor them at Christmas, so we went down to give them somebody else."

The students all are part of Ross' enhancement enrichment program, a liberal arts program aimed at teaching young people how to think, not what to think, he said.

Fifth-grader Madeline Shrader of the Canaan school said she learned a lot from the trip.

"One thing I learned was that more people than I expected had died from serving for our country," Madeline said. "As far as I could see it was white stones. It made me feel moved; a mixture of sadness and kind of, in a way, honored."

The group went to the Iwo Jima Memorial where a helicopter flyover honored Nancy Chamberlain, of Winslow, Maj. Jay Aubin's mother, who accompanied the group on their trip.


By DOUG HARLOW, Morning Sentinel December 20, 2009


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