UPPER AUGUSTA TOWNSHIP -- It's the 73rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Wreaths for Warriors has become a tradition at the Sunbury City Cemetery and it's an opportunity for local veterans to connect with kids.
This is the 9th year. The wreaths are made at Kohl's Stony Hill tree farm near Danville and are paid for by by donations.
For some boy scouts it's almost as exciting as Christmas morning, lining up to help unload more than a thousand wreaths in Shikellamy State Park in Northumberland County.
Organizer of Wreaths for Warriors, Richard Simpson, a veteran himself, welcomes the eager energy.
"This gets them a little curious and they ask questions and they learn a little bit about how they got what they got," said Simpson.
After the wreaths are loaded up, they are delivered to cemeteries where veterans are buried around central Pennsylvania, including Sunbury City Cemetery where the scouts and their parents fanned out, placing the greenery on stones standing in the December sun.
While the wreath laying may take place on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, it honors all veterans, like at the grave of Captain Charles Cobin, who died in the Revolutionary War.
But the veteran on 9-year-old Cooper Rouse's mind didn't die in battle--his mother Jill served in the Navy, but died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 43.
"She just out of the out of the blue one morning, two years ago. It will be two years in April," said Don Rouse of Sunbury.
While Don Rouse was deployed in the military, Jill stayed home and volunteered her time to help veterans. Her husband says doing things like this helps keeps her memory close, especially during the holidays.
"She is proud of us. She would be very proud, especially with Cooper helping out. She did a lot of community service, so it's good. It's really good."
It's a legacy of giving back her son seems determined to carry on.
"What do you think your mom would say to you today?"
She would say, 'I think this is great.' I think we should do this more often every year," Cooper Rouse said.
