Wreaths Across America
Press Release
August 2021
This unique museum on wheels is free to the community and helps honor local veterans.
Yulee, FL — Thursday, October 28, 2021 — Wreaths Across America (WAA) is proud to announce a local stop in Yulee, FL for the WAA Mobile Education Exhibit (MEE) national tour. The MEE started its tour at the WAA Headquarters in Maine and will be in the area Thursday, October 28, 2021 for a scheduled event that is both free and open to the public. The event will take place at Wildlight located behind the Red Story Center Building, 123 Tinker Street, Yulee from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.
The MEE goal is to bring the local community, veterans, active-duty military and their families together through interactive exhibits, short films, and shared stories. The exhibit serves as a mobile museum, educating visitors about the service and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes as well as to serve as an official ‘welcome home’ station for our nation’s Vietnam Veterans.
The public tours for the MEE are free and open to the public with social distancing, sanitation and COVID-19 safety procedures in place to protect the health of all visitors in accordance with the CDCs recommendation for large gatherings stemming from concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the media, dignitaries, veterans and other interested groups are urged to come, ask questions, share stories and experience this one-of-a-kind exhibit.
You can sponsor a veteran’s wreath anytime for $15 at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/FL0482. Each sponsorship goes toward a live, balsam wreath that will be placed on the headstone of an American hero locally at Jacksonville National Cemetery. We endeavor to honor all veterans laid to rest at noon on Saturday, December 18, 2021, as part of National Wreaths across America Day.
I hate to be a skeptic, especially when it comes to honoring members of the armed services, but the lack of an identified local sponsor for this event made me curious. So I did a little research which I think your readers should know about. First, Charity Navigator, which rates the extent to which non-profits used their revenue for mission-based purposes gave WAA at failing grade 65/100. Second, WAA’s IRS Form-990, a non-profit’s equivalent to a corporate tax return showed states over $15 million of the organization’s $22+ million in revenues is paid to a company to supply and transport the wreaths which is owned by the husbands of two members of the board including the executive director. The 990 states that the board is aware of this potential conflict of interest, the spouses recused themselves when the contract was awarded, and the contract is based on an RFP. However, it does not indicate the company’s profit margin for each wreath.
I am not telling anyone they should not attend the event or sponsor a wreath for $15. I am providing this information as an example of why it is important to take advantage of the information that is available on every IRS approved non-profit, especially those that are not household names. As the parent of an active member of the armed services, our family receives these kinds of solicitations all the time. And we regularly give to the USO and Wounded Warriors Project based on the valuable services they provide to current and former military personnel as well as their financial ratings.