Citing fears over the spread of COVID-19, officials at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday decided to cancel their annual Wreaths Across America event. The ceremony was one of more than 2,400 planned Dec. 19 at cemeteries across the country. Volunteers honor deceased veterans by placing wreaths on their gravesites, part of National Wreaths Across America Day. "As an organization, we are shocked by this unexpected turn of events," Wreaths Across America said in a statement on Twitter last night. "To say we are devastated would be an understatement." Last year, more than 38,000 volunteers turned out in rainy and cold conditions at the Arlington cemetery to place 254,000 wreaths on gravesites. Cemetery officials said they had concluded they "could not implement sufficient controls to mitigate the risks" of hosting the event this year. The decision also includes Airmen's Home National Cemetery in Washington. "We did not make this decision lightly. Despite the controls developed to disperse potential crowds in time and space and required personal safety protocols, we determined that hosting any event of this scale risked compromising our ability to accomplish our core mission of laying veterans and their eligible family members to rest," said Karen Durham-Aguilera, executive director of the Office of Army Cemeteries and Arlington National Cemetery, in a news release announcing the cancellation.
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