A Gold Star family from Frisco is asking for help to make sure headstones at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery are decorated in time for Christmas.
Every December, Chris Bush and his family help celebrate Christmas with their son, Army Cpl. Peter Courcy.
Courcy was killed in 2009 by a suicide bomber while serving in Afghanistan. He's buried at DFW National Cemetery.
That first Christmas, Bush remembered asking about wreaths on headstones at the cemetery.
"They said, 'Yeah you can lay a Christmas wreath if you want,'" Bush recalled. "I said, 'Well, doesn't everybody get one?' They said, 'No, but there is an organization that gives wreaths.'"
In 2009, the family set out on a new mission to raise donations for Wreaths Across America. The national nonprofit works to put wreaths on veterans' headstones. It costs $15 to sponsor a wreath either through the national organization or through individual fundraising groups.
The Bush family worked to decorate as many gravestones as possible at DFW National Cemetery.
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"It was such a moving and powerful experience," Bush said. "We wanted to be able to get more and more wreaths out here so all of the other Gold Star families would come out and lay a wreath for their children as well."
"It is just an awesome, beautiful sight," Bush said. "The red ribbon and the green wreath."
Every year since 2009, Bush said the family and volunteers have collected more wreaths than the year before.
Until this December.
"This is really the first year that we're not going to get more wreaths," Bush said. "At this point, we're about 9,000 down."
He's not sure why donations have leveled off. He said it's possible many believed the wreaths are placed on headstones by the government and that they'll always be there.
With the deadline to sponsor a wreath coming up on Dec. 3, Bush hoped North Texans would hear his family's message.
"We realized this cemetery is a monument for people who have served our country," Bush said. "There's so many graves out here. We want everyone to be recognized."
For more information about sponsoring a service member's wreath, click here.
Volunteers will set out the wreaths that are collected on Dec. 15 at 10:15 a.m. at DFW National Cemetery.
