SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — For Tony Cupples, the director of the Missouri Veterans Cemetery, he hopes each year that enough money is fundraised to ensure every headstone at the cemetery has a wreath on it this holiday season.
With a couple of days to go before the deadline to get orders in, he says several thousand headstones will go without.
“We’re right now somewhere around 4,000 wreaths. To get to everyone, you’re talking 10,000, so we’re short,” Cupples said.
The donation price for a wreath is $17 this year.
“The cemetery has nothing to do with other than the we’re the recipients of the wreaths. It is all from donations from families, friends, loved ones, community members,” Cupples said.
The Missouri Veterans Cemetery isn’t able to take monetary donations, so it simply relies on non-profits to help with the effort.
“They should go through Wreaths Across America,” Cupples said. “We don’t take our accept money here, again there’s nothing for us we’re a state agency. Therefore we cannot do anything like that.”
The deadline is November 28, and that’s to ensure enough time for the real wreaths to be made and shipped out before cemeteries across the nation hold ceremonies on December 13.
Cupples, a veteran himself, takes it hard when he knows there’s not enough wreaths.
“The biggest significance is recognizing their veteran or that spouse to have a wreath at their headstone when family members come and there’s a wreath at a gravesite next to them, they always wonder, why did we not have one?” Cupples said.
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a backup plan.
“We put our money together, and we get as many wreaths as our staff can, and we place those wreaths in the back. If we have a family member that that either was upset because they didn’t get one or they were supposed to get one and somehow they didn’t, then we’d go and we place a wreath or we give it the wreath to them and have them go out and place it. We really try to be proactive on trying to help the families the best we can,” Cupples stated.
Wreaths will be placed on the 13th, and Cupples says they will remain there until mid-January.
Family members are also encouraged to bring their own wreaths if they don’t want to donate.
Cupples adds their making efforts to move to artificial wreaths moving forward, to save money and include everyone.
“We have an organization that has got set up over the summer and they’ve already purchased some artificial wreaths and we’re going to start moving that way. Artificials, we think, are the way to go because we can use them for three, four or five years in a row,” Cupples said.
Another non-profit, Senior Veterans, Inc., runs a website called SpringfieldHonor.com and raises money for wreaths as well.
A viewer reached out to Ozarks First to double-check the validity of the site, and Ozarks First spoke to the CEO of the Colorado Springs-based group.
That CEO told Ozarks First that their interest in Springfield is because a board member’s family member is buried there, and that they assured Ozarks First that they take the money raised, and donate it to Wreaths Across America with the sole plan to have more wreaths in Springfield.
A disclosure statement on their website reads,
“Senior Veterans, Inc., established in 2011 as a 501 (c) (3) charity, is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Senior Veterans, Inc., in addition to serving senior war-time veterans and their families, operates as a coordinating donor. Senior Veterans, Inc., owns, operates, and maintains the secure site, SpringfieldHonor.com, through which it assists in the secure collection of funds to procure remembrance wreaths. Additionally, Senior Veterans, Inc., promotes that mission through press releases sent to the ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX stations in Springfield, MO. Wreath donations received through SpringfieldHonor.com will be held in escrow until December 1, 2025. At that time, donations, minus operating expenses, will be electronically sent to Wreaths Across America, Inc. for fulfillment. Information concerning SpringfieldHonor.com, including, without limitation, financials, are available on the “About Us” page at SpringfieldHonor.com.
The three parties, Senior Veterans, Inc., Wreaths Across America, Inc., and Missouri State Veterans Cemetery -Springfield, operate independently of one another, acting as donor, supplier, and host. While sharing the same or similar missions, the parties do not represent, speak for, endorse, or partner with each other.”
