The nonprofit Fallen Heroes Wreath Program on Dec. 7 organized the delivery of 384 wreaths to 93 area cemeteries where law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty are buried.
The deliveries, done for the 10th year, were made by 21 teams of motorcyclists and car and truck drivers. They rode to cemeteries in Philadelphia, the suburbs and Camden, Burlington and Cumberland counties in New Jersey.
The wreaths went to gravesites of officers who died in recent years all the way back to 1798, when the first Philadelphia police officer died in the line of duty.
The day started with a continental breakfast at Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, and featured a ceremony in the memorial grove, where plaques to some fallen officers are installed. Participants returned to the FOP for lunch.
The Fallen Heroes Wreath Program was founded by the family of John Pawlowski, a Philadelphia police officer who was killed in 2009.
“We don’t want anyone to forget the sacrifice of these men and women,” said Fallen Heroes Wreath Program founder/national coordinator Michelle Pawlowski, sister-in-law of John Pawlowski.
The program was inspired by the national Wreaths Across America, which places wreaths at veterans’ gravesites.
Today, the Fallen Heroes Wreath Program has chapters in 20 states.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and FOP Lodge 5 President Roosevelt Poplar attended the Dec. 7 ceremony.
Pawlowski, 22nd Police District Officer Eric Kelly and Vincent Pawlowski – John Pawlowski’s brother – read the names of officers who died in the line of duty whose gravesites are unknown, as roses were placed on the plaques in the memorial grove.
As the motorcyclists and drivers began their trips, the Rev. Jim MacNew – FOP Lodge 5’s chaplain – blessed them and their vehicles. ••
