For 12 years, McClung has chaired the local observance recognizing thousands of veterans buried in Middletown. Called Wreaths Across America, the goal this year is to sponsor wreaths for 2,000 veterans buried in Woodside Cemetery and Arboretum on Dec. 13.
Delivered from Maine, the wreaths are prepared by the Civil Air Patrol 288th Pathfinder Squadron which unloads the truck and starts the process of getting the wreaths to the graves. Between 200–300 local volunteers will place the wreaths on the graves of the veterans at the cemetery at noon Dec. 13. A ceremony will be in the cemetery’s chapel.
Locally, the observance has grown from laying wreaths at 90 graves 12 years ago to 2,000 today.
“We encourage the children to lay the wreaths,” she said.
McClung said donations are down for this year’s observance.
“We need more sponsors,” she said, adding that funds raised also support veterans’ causes and events. “When you see the magnitude of this, it’s overwhelming.”
The national Wreaths Across America effort recognizes veterans in more than 5,200 locations across the country with more than 2 million volunteers placing the wreaths on graves on the second Saturday of every December.
“Remember the fallen: Honor those who serve. Teach the next generation the value of freedom. It’s the mission of Wreaths Across America,” reads the national organization’s website.
Connections to veterans and veterans’ causes runs deep for McClung. She was born in Leslie County, Ky. on property which had been in her family for 150 – 200 years. Her father worked in the coal mines of eastern Kentucky before the family moved to Lorain, Ohio and eventually to Fairfield, where she graduated in the class of 1967.
During WW2, her father served in the 8th Army Air Corps while her mother was a “Rosie the Riveter,” working in a munitions factory as part of the war effort.
McClung recalls how she and her mother collected metal coffee cans and sent baked goods to the troops during the war in Vietnam and also sent letters to troops in Desert Storm.
“These were real life people who wanted to come home,” she said.
In addition to Wreaths Across America, she is active with many veterans’ causes. She also is active in Daughters of the American Revolution, Nathanial Sackett Chapter, in Monroe. And she is a proud descendant of at least seven patriots from the American Revolution.
“I feel connected to it all … all connected by battlefield blood,” she said.
Retired after 30 years of nursing, McClung said that her favorite job was as a clinic nurse at Butler Tech.
“I loved working with the teenagers.”
Her husband of 56 years, Don, was in the helicopter assault battalion in Vietnam. The couple raised two children. In addition to her veterans’ efforts, her number one priority is her family of two children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. In her spare time, she loves watercolor painting.
“I’m not out for recognition … I want to have a wreath for every (veteran’s) grave,” she said.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
To sponsor a $17 wreath, visit wreathsacrossamerica.org/OH0032P.
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