It’s a way to honor local veterans and their families before the holiday season.”

Jeremiah Heesaker

ELY - A group working together to honor military service members ahead of Veterans Day endured freezing temperatures last weekend to place more than 130 Christmas wreaths at the graves of service members buried at the Ely Cemetery.
Jeremiah Heesaker, his friend Theresa Miller, and her grandson located more than 130 graves of service members at the Ely Cemetery, adding a wreath with an American flag on top of each one.
“It’s a way to honor local veterans and their families before the holiday season,” Heesaker told a Duluth television station. He was joined by Miller, a Babbitt bait shop owner, and her grandson, in laying the wreaths.
“We wanted to put them out before Veterans Weekend so all the families, when they come up to see their veterans’ graves, they can see the flag, the wreath and all that for their family member,” said Heesaker.
“I served in the military, in the 101st Airborne and Band of Brothers,.I was active duty in the Army, and I served overseas. I want everybody to know that veterans and their sacrifices will always be remembered,” Heesaker said.
Heesaker and his small group were participating in the Wreaths Across America program. “We’ve had volunteers and friends, and it’s a group effort. Everyone pitched in, and we got it done. So we’re happy,” he said.
Miller’s Just Bite Me Bait Shop supplied the materials, and she has helped make the wreaths for the past two years. “We put together 130 wreaths to get ready as fast as we can,” Miller said.
The Ely Gospel Tabernacle Church also donated to the project.