The Journey Home Project to Honor Fallen Heroes on National Wreaths Across America Day
501(c)(3) Non-Profit, Co-Founded by Charlie Daniels, Will Place Wreaths at Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery on December 12
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Country music legend Charlie Daniels' co-founded non-profit The Journey Home Project will join the local community to lay wreaths upon the graves of fallen soldiers at Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery as part of National Wreaths Across America Day, which will be celebrated in all 50 states and beyond on Saturday, December 12. The Journey Home Project has donated a total of 250 wreaths, which will grace the headstones of military servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, and representatives from "Journey Home" will be on-site to solemnly lay the wreaths upon each grave in a special salute. "We love what Wreaths Across America is doing in the local Nashville community," said Mercedez Longever, co-founder of The Journey Home Project. We hope that by joining them in this initiative we can help to further spread the word about this event so that more community members can get involved. We should never forget to honor our fallen military members, especially during the holidays when their families are missing them the most."
The Journey Home Project was founded in 2014 by country music legend Charlie Daniels and fellow board members David Corlew, Ed Hardy, and Joe and Mercedez Longever to raise and contribute funds and resources to those organizations that do the most good in making a difference in the lives of American patriots. As a result of funds raised through Daniels' 40th Anniversary Volunteer Jam at the Bridgestone Arena on August 12, The Journey Home Project has been able to donate funds to help with the completion of the state-of-the-art Veterans and Military Families Center on campus at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), among various other fundraising events for veterans. In 2014, Wreaths Across America and its national network of volunteers laid over 700,000 memorial wreaths at 1,000 locations in the United States and beyond. They were able to include ceremonies at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, as well as Bunker Hill, Valley Force and the sites of the September 11 tragedies; and accomplished this with the help from 2,047 fundraising groups, corporate contributions and donations of trucking, shipping and thousands of helping hands. Their goal of covering Arlington National Cemetery was accomplished in 2014 with the placement of 226,535 wreaths. The wreath laying is held annually, on the second or third Saturday of December. Wreaths Across America's annual pilgrimage from Harrington, Maine to Arlington National Cemetery has become known as the world's largest veterans' parade. Join The Journey Home Project and other community members in showing respects to Nashville's local fallen soldiers this holiday season by sponsoring a wreath from Wreaths Across America. In lieu of financial donations, volunteers are invited to join Wreaths Across America's national wreath-laying ceremony at the cemetery located at 7931 McCrory Lane, Nashville, TN 37221. Arrival time is10:30 a.m. CT. Laying of the wreaths will begin promptly at 11 a.m. CT. A volunteer bagpiper will be in attendance, and hundreds of volunteers of all ages are expected to attend. A total of 2,000 wreaths have been sponsored so far. For more information on how to get involved, please visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org. For more on The Journey Home Project or to donate, please visit www.thejourneyhomeproject.org
