Volunteers throughout the United States will place donated roses on the graves of the nation’s war dead for the fourth year in a row this Memorial Day, May 26, through the Memorial Day Flowers Program. The Wholesale Florist and Florist Supplier Association is one of the official sponsors of the program nationwide and also at Arlington National Cemetery where Boy Scouts will place roses on veterans’ headstones.

The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation is a charitable organization created by Ramiro Peñaherrera, an Ecuadorian-American rose grower and Kevin Clifford, director of transportation for the Delaware Valley Floral Group in Sewell, NJ. Peñaherrera told The Produce News that the goal of the organization is to honor those who have served this country and to help families bring closure to their losses.

“The supreme sacrifice our military and their families make for us could never be repaid,” said Peñaherrera in a news release. “We want to tell the families of these heroes that the loss of their loved one was not in vain.”

The project links floral wholesalers, retailers and local groups such as Veterans of Foreign Wars. They work together on Memorial Day ceremonies to encourage relatives and volunteers to lay roses on veterans’ graves.

Participating retailers receive 250 roses, a Memorial Day Flowers banner and 250 leaflets from their local wholesaler. Managers of floral departments and other floral retailers can set up a table at a local cemetery to distribute the roses. Flower growers from Ecuador, Colombia, Canada and the United States donate the flowers.

The Memorial Day Flowers program has grown bigger each year. To honor the fallen, 10,000 roses and 200 bouquets were handed out at the Arlington National Cemetery Visitors Center on Memorial Day in 2011, according to a news release.

The next year, 120 volunteers gave 60,000 roses to Arlington National Cemetery visitors on Memorial Day and another 84 groups handed out 50,000 roses at 95 cemeteries in 26 states. The Florists & Community” program expanded to a two-day event in 2013 when 100 Boy Scouts placed 64,000 roses on headstones in the 11 most visited sections of the cemetery the Sunday before Memorial Day and 120 volunteers and 40 Cub Scouts gave 80,000 roses to visitors at four cemetery locations on Monday. Across the nation, another 188 organizations in 32 states handed out a total of 88,000 roses at 199 cemeteries and parades.

Peñaherrera told The Produce News that he hopes the program will continue to grow and that more florists and supermarket floral programs will become involved in the floral distribution, to show appreciation for their country and to honor those who have served.

To participate or learn more, visit the nonprofit organization’s website at www.memorialdayflowers.org.