We had another rewarding Memorial Day event at the Salem County Veterans Cemetery yesterday! This year, behind the scenes, Mike Mitchell worked directly with Rosaprima who provided 3,000 beautiful stems for the event. Carolee Tees offered use of the flower processing belt, which saved us a ton of time (and clean-up) onsite. She and Donna Niedbalski had a team of volunteers to process the stems including Al Grillo, Amy Haig, Robin Grossmick, and Keith Rogers.
Early yesterday, Dave Paleschic loaded the product and delivered it to the cemetery in one of our wrapped vans. Though we weren’t scheduled to begin laying roses until 9:30 am, faithful volunteers began to arrive as early as 8:45 am. Rose Tamaricho came out of retirement to partner with Steve Natalino again this year. Accompanied by their families, Steve Catando, Kristin McDonnell, Michelle Geisert and Karen Urbanek also returned for their second year of service. We were happy to have new volunteers with Vince Lamonica, Brandon Norris, Gary Antosh and their families.
DVFlora volunteers placed over 2,800 stems on the gravestones!
This year, Melissa DeCastro, Director of Salem County Freeholders, stopped by to personally thank us for our service. We also had a few walk-up volunteers who simply saw us in action and wanted to join in. By 10 am, we had placed over 2,800 stems on the gravestones of all the local heroes buried there. At the 12 o’clock ceremony, the efforts of DVFlora were mentioned by Joe Hannigan, Director of Salem County Veterans Services, and the crowd roared with appreciation! The gratitude from that community is powerful!
We thank those for continuing to support this worthy cause. See you again next year!
