Southampton Man Joined Local Wreaths Across America Effort

A group of PSEG Long Island employees, including Dory Seymore of Southampton (pictured), recently participated in a nationwide campaign to honor fallen service members by laying wreaths at their gravesites for the holidays.

Wearing a Santa hat and beard, Seymore joined more than 50 PSEGLI coworkers in supporting the 2021 Wreaths Across America movement at both Calverton National Cemetery, where Seymore volunteers, and Long Island National Cemetery at Pinelawn on Saturday, December 18, 2021, which was designated as last year’s National Wreaths Across America Day. Groups arrived at each cemetery with hundreds of cardboard boxes loaded with live wreaths, each with a red ribbon, to be placed on individual graves.

The result was a beautiful, moving, and visually stunning tribute to the dead and their good service to this country. “I say their name and I say, ‘Thank you for your service’ — and we do that for each one,” Seymore says, explaining the wreath-placing ceremony as they honor each individual.

A Southampton High School graduate from the class of 1982 who studied at Suffolk Community College, Seymore works as a coordinator for PSEGLI in Bridgehampton, where he has been employed for 36 years. “That’s one of the best events I’ve been able to be a part of,” he says of Wreaths Across America, which he has participated in through work for the last 10 years.

But it’s not just about his job. Seymore says he has two uncles and an aunt interred at Calverton National Cemetery, including one uncle who served in the Korean War, and he makes sure to drop by and visit his grave each year.

“It’s been great ever since we started,” Seymore adds, noting that he looks forward to laying wreaths every year on the last Saturday before Christmas. They also place flags at the cemetery annually on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, rain or shine. “It is so good to see all the people who come out to do that, it’s amazing,” he says later, describing the team effort as volunteers unpacked a tractor trailer full of wreaths and then distribute them across the expansive cemetery.

Volunteers lay wreaths each December on National Wreaths Across America Day at more than 2,500 locations across all 50 states and many U.S. territories, including Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., Long Island’s two national cemeteries, and on working military vessels. The movement is an effort to “remember our fallen U.S. veterans; honor those who serve; and teach children the value of our freedom.”

Visit wreathsacrossamerica.org to learn more about Wreaths Across America, including how to sponsor a veterans’ wreath, donate or volunteer.