Hanford Insider

Hanford Insider: Wreaths Across America

• Rob Bentley • Season 3 • Episode 19

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December in Hanford brings more than twinkling lights—it brings movement, memory, and a community that shows up. We open with the latest city news, from the council’s leadership rotation to a tougher stance on illegal fireworks that scales fines by each device and allows drone enforcement, then roll into a packed calendar: Winter Wonderland hours, choir and band concerts in the Presentation Center, Bethel Ballet’s Nutcracker at the Fox, and the Kings Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas at the Fox. We also share where to find the best light displays with Hanford Holiday and Kings County Let It Glow.

Our featured guest, Missy Chavez from Wreaths Across America, shares how a single act of generosity in 1992 grew into an international movement—and how Kings County now honors over 3,000 veterans across four cemeteries. Missy details the year-round logistics: volunteer crews marking graves, sponsorships at $17 per wreath, and creative fundraising from spring taco dinners to Labor Day raffles and local restaurant nights. We talk about the power of matching programs when available, the clarity of ceremony day logistics, and this year’s theme—keep moving forward—inspired by a soldier’s final words and carried by the people who make remembrance tangible.

We round things out with sports: tournament swings for Hanford High, Hanford West, and Sierra Pacific, early momentum for girls’ soccer, and an open call for scores and updates to make sure every team has a voice. Along the way, we share how listeners can submit events, support the show, and plug into a December that’s as meaningful as it is festive. Subscribe, share with a neighbor, and leave a review to help more locals find these stories—then tell us which event you’ll make part of your tradition this week.

You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!

SPEAKER_01:

On this episode of The Hanford Insider, we'll get a preview of this year's Wreaths Across America with Missy Chavez. Rob will highlight some of this week's community events, and I'll be back with your sports report. This is The Hanford Insider for Monday, December 8th.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm your host, Rob Bentley, and it's December, the season of lights, community, and tradition here in our hometown. This month, we're diving into everything that makes holidays in Hanford shine. So grab a warm drink and settle in and let's celebrate the magic of December together, right here on the Hanford Insider Podcast. In Community News this week, Hanford Winter Wonderland is open through the beginning of January. Weekday sessions begin at four and end at nine. Weekend sessions begin at two and end at nine fifteen. Visit Hanford Winter Wonderland.com for information and tickets. It was announced this week that after 51 years in business, Sanchez Feed and Seed will be closing its doors. Congratulations to Greg Sanchez on his retirement, and thank you to all of the employees who have served the community since 1974. The ElRetmo Drum and Bugle Corps, starting up at ColorGard for children in grades five through eight. For more information, visit ElRetmo.org. The Hanford City Council met on Tuesday, December 2nd, and selected Mark Kyrus to be our next mayor and Nancy Howes to continue to serve as our vice mayor. The council rotates leadership each December, and Travis Payton's term as mayor has come to a close, but he will remain on the council until his term expires, serving Area A. In general business, Hanford Fire Department Chief Daniel Perkins came back to the council with proposed changes to the municipal code regarding illegal fireworks. In the past, it was a$1,000 fine if you got caught launching illegal fireworks. Now it will be$1,000 for each illegal firework if you're found in possession of multiple illegals, whether you're lighting them off or you're just selling or storing them. The new ordinance also allows for enforcement by the department by flying drones. The new ordinance will be up for final approval at the December 16th City Council meeting. Now let's take a look at this week's community calendar. The Hanford High School Choir will be performing their winter concert on Tuesday, December 9th at 7 p.m. in the presentation center. The following night, it's the Bullpup band's turn to take the stage. The Hanford Garden Club will be holding their Christmas lunch in boutique on Wednesday, December 10th at 11 a.m. at the First Christian Church. Adventist Health will be holding their light up a life tree lighting on Thursday, December 11th at 6 p.m. The Hanford West High School Band will be presenting their winter concert on December 11th in the Presentation Center at 7 p.m. Bethel Ballet will be presenting the Nutcracker at the Hanford Fox Theater on Friday, December 12th and Saturday, December 13th. And to wrap things up, the King Symphony Orchestra will be holding their annual Christmas at the Fox performance featuring choirs from all three Hanford high schools. The concert begins at 4. You can find out more at FoxHanford.com. There are two Christmas light pages that are gearing up for the festival season. Hanford Holiday on Facebook provides a list of decorated homes along with a map, and Kings County Let It Glow is a countywide contest where the best homes go for a prize. You can visit their website at Kings County Let It Glow.com for more information. That's certainly a lot of great events. If you have an event coming up, large or small, and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmail.com. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. It's the most comprehensive community calendar available. Well, it's December once again, and we are blessed to have with us Missy Chavez, who is with Wreaths Across America. Welcome to the show, Missy.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Thank you for having me again.

SPEAKER_02:

Missy, it has been quite a year for Wreaths Across America. Uh last year I was able to participate in the ceremony, and I was just so impressed by the turnout and uh the support that you received. Can you tell us more about the Wreaths Across America program and maybe how it got started for those listeners who maybe didn't hear our interview last year?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so Wreaths Across America is an international organization. So it began, I believe, back in 1992, when a local wreath maker in Maine had an excess of wreaths at Christmas time. And so he um reached out, he had the idea of putting them on veteran graves, and he reached out to Arlington National Cemetery, and they allowed that, and that's how it started internationally, the organization, and then it just has continued to grow and grow since then. For Kings County Wreaths Across America, we brought it here in 2019, was our first year, so this will be our seventh one, and um yeah, when we started our first year was just one cemetery, um cover covering Grangeville with just over a thousand wreaths of a thousand veterans honored, and now to this year covering L'Amour, Sunflower, Grangeville, and Calvary Cemeteries, and that totals just over 3,000 wreaths and veterans that we're honoring. So, yeah, it's every year we get a bigger crowd at the ceremony, it seems, and more people finding out about it and coming out and supporting us.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's a year-long process. This is not something you just get together that day and do. I know there's a lot of work and effort that goes into securing the wreaths and getting sponsorships. Uh, what work has been done so far as far as preparing the cemeteries for the for the ceremony?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, um this past Saturday, the 6th, we marched we marked the graves at the cemeteries. And so we have crews of volunteers that come out to help us do that. And then for the ceremony, that the ceremony day is when we will be laying the wreaths, and um, people can look for how we have marked the wreaths, and then that's how they'll know which headstone to put a wreath on. And like you said, yes, it it is a year-long process. We have a committee that meets once a month and we fundraise and raise money mostly all throughout the year to cover the cost of the wreaths. Each wreath sponsorship is$17. So with the$3,000 plus wreaths that we get, that's just over$57,000 that we raise.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, a lot of people wouldn't even realize the cost of putting that together.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's not much, but when when you're doing that many, it it's it definitely adds up, and we definitely could not do it or cover all the veterans that we do without the help and support that we get.

SPEAKER_02:

So let's talk about some of that support. This list would be too long to uh to put on a show, but uh I know that there's been a lot of community groups that have reached out and uh shown their support. Your Facebook page is a great example of how groups can get involved and um continue to support this. Uh, but you've done some creative things for fundraising this year, too, I understand.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Um we we have lots of um businesses and local groups, as you said, that donate and give donations, which we gladly accept. And um then we do have um two big fundraisers that we have every year is a taco dinner in the spring, and then um a raffle prize drawing giveaway um that we did. We have done it in the past in midsummer, around the 4th of July, but this year we moved it a little bit later to the Labor Day time frame, but um that's always a good one. And then we did a couple local dinner nights um with Chipotle and Yogurt Land, and those we had good turnouts for those.

SPEAKER_02:

I understand one of the unique things that you have is you have matching grants where you know prior to the event uh you see how much has been raised and you have some matching grants available too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, in the couple years past, um, there has been a matching program. It is put on throughout the whole Wreaths Across America organization. We don't know for sure yet for this year if they will have the matching. We usually find out a day or two before the ceremony. So yeah, definitely be watching our Facebook group for that because that's a great time to sponsor wreaths or give donations because then your money would be doubled.

SPEAKER_02:

So you're fully funded for this year. We are you are always collecting money because the costs go up, and there's got to be a lot of cost associated with this too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

There we don't have a lot of cost for putting on the ceremony. Um, fortunately, we uh we have a little bit that we tend to some a lot of us in the committee just kind of cover on our own. Um that's our contribution and our donation to the cause, but the biggest expense definitely is getting the wreaths.

SPEAKER_02:

So, Missy, I know that there's always a theme, and last year the theme was say their name. And this year the theme is keep moving forward. And do you know how that was inspired?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it was the last words of an Iraqi veteran, and um there's a whole story behind it. We I believe I did post it on the Facebook group at the beginning of the year, so you can look for that if you're interested in that. But um definitely inspirational. Um, he told his squadron or his unit that, um, basically with his dying breath, and um just inspiring them to keep moving forward. And we have taken it to heart ourselves of continuing to move forward and continuing to do this each year.

SPEAKER_02:

So the ceremony is this coming Saturday, December 13th at the Grangeville Cemetery, and it starts at 11. There are other cemeteries that are involved as well, but I understand um families can come earlier and place wreaths on the graves?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So they can come at 10 o'clock if they have a loved one who's a veteran buried at the ceremony location, and then we will lay the Grangeville wreaths immediately after the ceremony.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you mentioned the websites, uh Wreaths Across America, very, very accessible. And then you also have a local Facebook page dedicated to the ceremonies here in Kings County, and you can find that at Kings County Wreaths Across America. A lot of great information on there, and Missy keeps it updated, and uh a lot of uh you can we were talking about the sponsors earlier. One of the things that I enjoy about the page is that you can actually go in and see all these different uh organizations, community service organizations, individuals that have contributed to the Wreaths Across America program. Um, Missy, thank you so much for joining us once again, and we look forward to the ceremony on Saturday. And if you have any questions, you can contact Missy through the website, and uh she'd be happy to answer your questions and uh maybe get you involved for next year's event.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for having us and thank you for helping us spread the word. And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll start with basketball, where the Hanford High Boys won three of their four contests in the Kingsburg Lions tournament to improve to three and four overall on the year. After falling to Frontier in the tournament opener, the Bullpups rattled off three wins in a row, dominating Washington Union 71-23 before taking down Reggetti 71-55 and using a second-half comeback to squeak past Tulary Western 64-62. More tournament action awaits the Bullpups this week at the Clovis West Nike Invitational. The Hanford High Girls fell in their only action last week, 44-25 to Kerman. This week a rivalry clash with Hanford West awaits on Monday before tournament play at the Hoover Holiday Classic this weekend. Neither Hanford West basketball teams were able to find a win last week, with the boys falling to Menachie and Mission Oak, while the girls fell to Dainuba and Mission Oak. The one in four boys will be in action at McFarland and Corcoran this week, while the one in six girls host Hanford High on Monday before traveling to Tulare Union on Wednesday. And the Sierra Pacific Boys saw their undefeated start to the season come to an end, going winless at the Emanuel tournament to fall to three and four on the year. The Golden Bears will head to Foothill in Bakersfield this week for three tournament games. The one and seven Sierra Pacific girls were idle this week as they prepare for tournament action this week at the Nawahine Paani Opaanhu tournament in Honolulu. And don't worry, we haven't forgotten about soccer either. Their season also got underway recently, and the girls' teams at all three schools have found success to start the year. The Hanford High girls are off to a 2-0 start with dominating wins over Porterville and CVC. The Sierra Pacific girls find themselves 3-2-1 on the year with victories over Central, Atascadero, and Sanger, and the Hanford West girls are also 3-2-1, their victories coming over Strathmore, Carruthers, and Roosevelt. On the boys' soccer side, all three schools are still looking for their first wins of the year. As always, we like to cover as many sports as we can, but we can only do so much without you. Any sport, any team, any level, if you have a score report or a team update, please let us know at HanfordInsider at gmail.com. I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's all the time we have for this week's show. On next week's show, I'll have coverage of the new cart station ribbon cutting. It's been a great 2025, and after next week's show, I'm going to take a little break and return with all new shows on January 12th. If you enjoy this podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buymeacoffee.com forward slash Hanford Insider to make a donation. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by my website at hamfordinsider.com to sign up for updates. You'll also get an exclusive copy of my newsletter in your inbox each week. Also need your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media, or like most people, just telling a friend. For more information about the show, you can find this podcast on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at HanfordInsider at gmail.com and I'll look into it. Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful week.

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Rob Bentley

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