Veterans seeking secret wreath donor

LEWISTON — To local veterans, it's a happy mystery.

Daniel Hartill/Sun Journal

Local veterans want to thank whoever secretly left 23 wreaths against stone monuments in Veterans Memorial Park in Lewiston.

A donor has secretly decorated each of 23 monuments in Lewiston's Veterans Park with a wreath.

The wreaths, each sporting a red bow, appeared on the stones about two weeks ago, said Bert Dutil, a member of the L&A Veterans Council, which oversees the public park.

On Friday, they sat beneath a layer of new snow.

"We don't know who did it, so to us it's a mystery right now," Dutil said Friday. Since the wreaths appeared, he and other veterans have been making inquiries about them. But they have learned nothing.

"It looks so beautiful down there right now," he said. "It makes us feel so good that somebody did that."

Each of the granite monuments is engraved with 214 names of someone from the area who served in the military, living or dead.

About a week before the gifts appeared, the park was presented with a a single wreath from Wreaths Across America, which trucked wreaths to Virginia to decorate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. The L&A Veterans Council has helped the charity raise money.

The mystery wreaths are smaller but likely came at a considerable cost, Dutil said.

"We'd like to send them a letter and thank them," he said. "But we we don't know who to thank."

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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Woody's picture
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Thank you...

...whoever.

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