A volunteer with The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation places flowers at headstones at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., on May 26, 2019. Every year during the Memorial Day weekend, more than 142,000 people visit the cemetery to honor those who are laid to rest on the grounds. (Elizabeth Fraser/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON – All 300,000 graves at Arlington National Cemetery could have a flower placed on its headstone for Memorial Day after a last-minute rush of donations and some help from the floral industry.
“This outpouring of support shows the patriotic spirit of so many Americans,” said Ramiro Penaherrera, the executive director of The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation, the nonprofit organization in charge of the annual practice of placing flowers at the graves for the holiday.
The foundation said last week that it only had enough money to place flowers on about half of the military graves at the cemetery, which occupies 640 acres in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington.
But the foundation has received an influx of donations in the last several days, including help from importers in the flower industry. Various florists have sent flowers to Arlington for the foundation’s Flowers of Remembrance Day on Sunday.
“We are so grateful to the American public and the generosity of our floral importers, who are literally donating thousands of flowers by the pallet, to ensure our fallen military heroes are honored this year,” Penaherrera said. “Many of the floral importers donating flowers are immigrants to the United States who are grateful for this nation and the freedoms it offers.”
Foundation officials said they are optimistic that they now could have enough flowers for each headstone.
“We definitely have 280,000 [flowers] and it might be well over 300,000, but we won't know that until [Saturday] after we process everything,” said Bernardo Beate, the foundation’s director of operations.
The foundation gives out a variety of flowers each Memorial Day to be placed on the graves at Arlington, including roses, carnations, pompom blooms, sunflowers, tulips and camellias.
The group has been responsible for buying the flowers for the graves at Arlington since 2011. In its first year, the foundation generated enough flower money to cover the headstones of just 10,000 troops. The numbers steadily rose in the years that followed until the foundation reached a then-record of 220,000 flowers in 2019. A year later, donations dried up when the coronavirus pandemic hit, though they have rebounded some in the last two years.
Two weeks ago, organizers said they weren’t even close to the halfway mark. The foundation buys the flowers for Memorial Day wholesale on the global market and shipping costs are usually donated by industry partners. They also often receive last-minute donations of flowers that are unsold for Mother’s Day.
But another problem remains -- finding enough volunteers to place the flowers at the graves on Flowers of Remembrance Day.
“We need additional volunteers on Sunday to help,” Penaherrera said. “This is an excellent way to honor our fallen troops and veterans for Memorial Day.”
About 2,500 volunteers have signed up to help so far. Anyone interested in helping can visit Arlington National Cemetery between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday – or they can sign up by visiting the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation website.
Veterans and eligible dependents, such as spouses, can be buried at Arlington, which is the most prominent U.S. military cemetery. It was established in 1864 and is the final resting place for several major historical military figures, including Army Gen. Creighton Abrams, Army Gen. Omar Bradley and General of the Armies John Pershing. Two former presidents – John F. Kennedy and William Howard Taft – are buried there, along with several justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
