STORIES OF REMEMBRANCE

Arlington, Va. – Only a week ago, the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation had only 80,000 flowers to place for its annual floral tribute at Arlington National Cemetery. Thanks to funding and donations the Foundation will bring a record-breaking 250,000 flowers to the cemetery, which will be enough to honor about 70% of the gravesites. “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,” said Ramiro Penaherrera, the executive director of the Foundation. “This outpouring of support shows the patriotic spirit of so many Americans. Many of the floral importers donating flowers are immigrants to the United States who are grateful for this nation and the freedoms it offers.” For the Foundation, 250,000 flowers is a record, topping the 220,000 flowers it brought in 2019. This large volume of flowers, however, is creating a new logistical challenge. “We need additional volunteers on Sunday to help! You are needed to visit gravesites throughout the cemetery and place flowers. This is an excellent way to honor our fallen troops and veterans for Memorial Day,” said Penaherrera. The Foundation is also supporting the second annual Flowers of Remembrance Day event at the cemetery and is donating flowers for the public to place in tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This extraordinary event allows the public to place flowers and pay their respects at the Tomb on Sunday, May 28, 2023 from 9am-5pm. After visiting the Tomb, the public can get flowers to place in tribute on gravesites in the cemetery. Anyone in the DC metro area can volunteer on Sunday, May 28 from 9am-5pm by coming to Arlington National Cemetery. Sign up is not required but does help organizers. Please sign up at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/flowers-of-remembrance-day-2023-tickets-579673327527 If volunteering please remember: Bring government-issued photo identification as you will need to pass through security when entering the cemetery. Drink lots of water and use sunscreen. Wear comfortable shoes as you may need to walk a distance. When placing a flower at a headstone in tribute, pause to read the name and details. Recite the name to yourself and place the flower in the grass in front of the headstone (where it can be mulched into the grass later when mowers come through) and not on the headstone. Flowers of Remembrance Day pays homage to the first official, national Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day. This ceremony first took place at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1868, to honor U.S. service members who died in the Civil War. The Foundation has brought flowers to Arlington National Cemetery every year since 2011 for Memorial Day. You can learn more at memorialdayflowers.org MEDIA COVERAGE SLOTS – SUNDAY, MAY 28 On Sunday, May 28th, Arlington National Cemetery is allowing media to get footage of the public placing flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at 9:30am, 10:30am and 11:30am. Media must register by 9 a.m.on Friday, May 26 by sending an email to arlingtoncemetery.pao@mail.mil with the following information: full name, media organization, photo or video, contact phone and email address, as well as time slot requested. MEDIA CONTACT (MEMORIAL DAY FLOWERS FOUNDATION): Media seeking interviews with the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation should call Ami Neiberger, 703-887-4877, ami@mapleavenuepr.com. Photos and video available by request. All interviews must be done outside the gates of Arlington National Cemetery, per cemetery policy. ABOUT THE MEMORIAL DAY FLOWERS FOUNDATION The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation began in 2011 after U.S. citizens working in the floral industry wanted to express their patriotism and profound appreciation for the sacrifices made by America’s military men and women. They began with placing 10,000 roses at Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day in 2011. They continue to work with Arlington National Cemetery to place flowers annually for Memorial Day and have expanded their efforts with the help of donors, volunteers and businesses to cemeteries around the country. The Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. More information is available at www.memorialdayflowers.org and on Twitter and Instagram.  

All visitors in attendance to the event will have to the opportunity to place a flower at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. ARLINGTON, Va. — Looking for a way to honor many of our nation’s heroes this Memorial Day weekend? An organization is looking for volunteers to lay flowers at Arlington National Cemetery. The Arlington-based location is the most famous cemetery in the country, where more than 300,000 veterans who served in conflicts dating back to from the Civil War have been laid to rest. Since its founding in 1866, the cemetery has provided a solemn place to reflect upon the sacrifices made by the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces. The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation will be holding their traditional flower distribution event on May 28 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., simultaneously with the 2nd annual Flowers of Remembrance Day. All visitors in attendance to the event will have to the opportunity to place a flower at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier — it’s one of the only days of the year where the public is allowed to do so. “We received such a tremendous response from the public during our inaugural Flowers of Remembrance Day event last year,” said Army National Military Cemeteries and Office of Army Cemeteries Executive Director Karen Durham-Aguilera. “We wanted to again allow our visitors the special opportunity to honor and respect the sacrifice of the Unknown Soldiers by placing flowers at the Tomb.” After the flower is placed, volunteers will be able to exit by the south side of the Plaza, where tables will be set up for the distribution. The foundation said that due to difficulty to secure corporate funding this year, they are counting on individual donors to help support the program. They also stated that they will “make every attempt to give the general public at least one flower to place at a nearby section.” Click here to get additional information and sign up to volunteer at the event. Click here to make a donation to the foundation for purchase of additional flowers to honor the veterans at Arlington National Cemetery. 

The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation is calling for volunteers to help place flowers at Arlington National Cemetery gravesites ahead of Memorial Day after a record week of donations left the organization with more flowers than available hands to distribute them. Just last week, the foundation announced donations for flowers had “dried up,” with just 80,000 flowers out of the 300,000 goal readily available. Now, following a week of record donations, those numbers are on target — and then some. “We need additional volunteers on Sunday to help,” the foundation’s executive director Ramiro Penaherrera said in a release. “You are needed to visit gravesites throughout the cemetery and place flowers. This is an excellent way to honor our fallen troops and veterans for Memorial Day.” The organization currently has more than 2,500 volunteers signed up to distribute flowers, with total flower numbers expected to easily surpass the previous donation record of 220,000 in 2019. The exact total won’t be known until organizers unpack pallets on Saturday. Those in the Washington area looking to volunteer can go to Arlington National Cemetery on Sunday, May 28, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Memorial Day tradition of placing flowers at the graves of fallen troops — one that started as “Decoration Day” — began on May 30, 1868, on the heels of the nation’s bloodiest war in history. The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation joined the effort in 2011 and has been placing flowers at the gravesites of fallen service members ever since. The organization started by placing 10,000 roses at graves in the cemetery, and eventually expanded to cemeteries around the country through the help of donors, businesses and volunteers. “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 in the statement. “This outpouring of support shows the patriotic spirit of so many Americans.”

Funding Needed for Memorial Day Floral Tribute at Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Day Flowers Foundation says fundraising this year has been tough and absent a surge in donations before May 22, the Foundation will have only 50,000 flowers to place to honor fallen troops. Arlington, Va. – It’s a Memorial Day tradition that stretches back to the 1800s – the placing of flowers to honor our fallen military service members for Memorial Day. And it’s become a beloved D.C. tradition as well, with thousands of flowers being placed annually at Arlington National Cemetery.  But this year, the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation says its typical donation sources for funding and donated flowers have dried up, and the Foundation needs to raise funds before May 22nd to cover the cost of purchasing 250,000 flowers on the wholesale market. The Foundation has secured about 50,000 flowers for its tribute at Arlington National Cemetery this year, but that’s a far cry from the 220,000 it has brought in the past, and far short of the 300,000 stems needed to honor every gravesite at our nation’s most hallowed burial ground for fallen service men and women. “We have brought flowers to Arlington National Cemetery every year since 2011 for Memorial Day, and it pains me to see our tribute so much smaller this year. Our goal is to honor every fallen service member and veteran headstone with a flower,” said Ramiro Penaherrera, the executive director of the Foundation. “We need to raise about $150,000 before May 22nd to cover the cost of purchasing 250,000  flowers at a wholesale price on the global flower market, and we can get transportation donated. We appreciate any support provided by the public.”  Thanks to its long-standing ties to the floral industry, the Foundation can obtain flowers at wholesale rates and have them shipped in time for the Memorial Day holiday. The Foundation often receives last-minute donations of extra flowers not sold for Mother’s Day, but it cannot rely on these donations to ensure there are enough flowers for the Memorial Day tribute, due to other conditions in the global flower market that make in-kind donations harder to obtain. You can donate at https://memorialdayflowers.org/donate/  ABOUT THE MEMORIAL DAY FLOWERS FOUNDATION The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation began in 2011 after U.S. citizens working in the floral industry wanted to express their patriotism and profound appreciation for the sacrifices made by America’s military men and women. They began with placing 10,000 roses at Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day in 2011. They continue to work with Arlington National Cemetery to place flowers annually for Memorial Day and have expanded their efforts with the help of donors, volunteers and businesses to cemeteries around the country. The Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. More information is available at www.memorialdayflowers.org and on Twittter  @MemDayFlowers.