COLUMBIA FALLS, Maine — Wreaths Across America (WAA) officials say they are overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from communities throughout the country for their Mobile Education Exhibit (MEE), according to a Nov. 16 news release.
The MEE is a rolling interactive museum that shares the organization’s mission to remember the fallen, honor those who serve and teach the next generation the value of freedom.
The 2024 national tour will begin in North Carolina in January, then head to South Carolina in February, followed by stops in Georgia, Kentucky, and Florida in March and April. The MEE will then head to Tennessee and Ohio in May, followed by Arkansas in June, and Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois for the rest of the summer. The exhibit will then visit the Delmarva peninsula in September and October. From there, it will go up through New England for the next month before heading home to Maine to join Wreaths Across America’s “Escort to Arlington” ahead of Wreaths Across America Day 2024.
To learn more about the Mobile Education Exhibit or submit a request for it to come to your community in 2024, click here.
When the MEE pulls into your area, all veterans, active-duty military, their families and the local community members are invited and encouraged to visit, take a tour and speak with WAA Ambassadors and volunteers.
Public tours are free and open to everyone, and guests, especially veterans, are urged to ask questions, share stories and experience this one-of-a-kind exhibit.
“The goal of the Wreaths Across America Mobile Education Exhibit is to bring communities together and teach about the organization’s mission,” said Trish Gardner, manager of the MEE. “The exhibit serves as a mobile museum, educating visitors about the service and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes and serving as an official ‘welcome home’ station for our nation’s Vietnam veterans.”
MEE and WAA Ambassadors transporting the mobile museum have welcomed home more than 3,300 Vietnam veterans since it first hit the road in 2019 as part of the organization’s partnership with the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration.
In January 2023, the MEE left Maine and began its national tour in California and will be finishing this year’s route as a member of the annual “Escort to Arlington,” kicking off on Dec. 9.
The weeklong escort will make stops at schools and memorials down the East Coast carrying Gold Star and Blue Star families, veterans and patriots sharing the mission and bringing communities together, culminating at Arlington National Cemetery on National Wreaths Across America Day, Saturday, Dec. 16.
