SPRINGVALE — When the folks at Oakhurst Dairy approached their long-time driver Joe Masse of Springvale to ask if he’d make a trip to Arlington National Cemetery, hauling wreaths as part of the convoy for Wreaths Across America, he didn’t hesitate.

“I said, ”˜Sure,’” said Masse, who has driven route trucks for the dairy for 37 years. “It seems like an honor.”

So Masse, along with dozens of other drivers for a host of other companies, will be headed to downeast Maine late next week. The convoy leaves Harrington, where the wreath program began at Morrill Worcester’s wreath-making facility back in 1992, on Dec. 8 and makes its way through small towns and big ones, winding up in time for ceremonies and the wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery Dec. 14.

There are stops along the way, including one in Kennebunk at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 9, and a drive-through past Wells Middle School on the way to a larger ceremony at Kittery Trading Post at noon that day.

There’s a stop at an elementary school in Rowley, Mass., one of several school stops in the trek, and at a Vietnam Memorial in Holmdel, N.J. There’s a parade in Middletown, Del., and ceremonies at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. before the convoy reaches its final destination at Arlington, Va.

There, starting at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 14, balsam Christmas wreaths ”“ each adorned with a red bow and made with skilled hands in Washington County ”“ will be laid against the white marble stones that mark the resting place of Americans who served their country from its founding to today.

In York County, there are two local ceremonies held in affiliation with Wreaths Across America set for Dec. 14: There’s one starting at 11:45 a.m. at the historic South Buxton Cemetery at Tory Hill (Route 112) in Bar Mills and another at noon at Southern Maine Veteran’s Cemetery, 83 Stanley Road in Springvale.

In 2012, more than 400,000 wreaths were laid through the program at 815 participating locations across the country, including 105,000 at Arlington National Cemetery.

As well as helping deliver wreaths to the national cemetery, Oakhurst Dairy plans to lay wreaths for up to 50 New England families at their loved ones’ graves during the ceremony at Arlington. A photograph of the wreath on each headstone will be taken and posted on Oakhurst’s website. New England families interested in requesting one of the 50 Veterans Remembrance Wreaths should visit www.oakhurstdairy.com/waa and complete the request form by Dec. 3.

Masse said he hopes to be able to place a wreath for someone from his hometown.

Paul Connolly, Oakhurst Dairy’s vice president and chief information officer, said the company intends to place the wreaths because it isn’t easy for families who have relatives buried at Arlington National Cemetery to visit there.  

Connolly said he’s gone along on the trek to Arlington for the past couple of years. He said the experience will be one Masse will remember.

“The stops along the way, people he’ll meet, the entire cause, it’s hard to describe in words,” said Connolly. “To see how they put together the loads in Harrington, it’s amazing, watching it come together.”

Connolly said the company is “extremely proud” to have Masse representing it. He said the Springvale driver, who is a father of three and a grandfather of five, is one of Oakhurst’s drivers who consistently wins the safe driving award, year after year.

Wreaths Across America began when wreath manufacturer Worcester, inspired by a trip he’d won as a 12-year-old Bangor Daily News paper carrier that included a visit to Arlington National Cemetery, arranged to place 5,000 surplus wreaths in one of the older sections of the national cemetery. It became an annual event that continued quietly, according to Wreaths Across America, until 2005, when the effort earned national attention. Wreaths Across America became a nonprofit agency in 2007.

While his girlfriend will accompany him to Virginia, Masse said his one of his grandsons, who is in the eighth grade, will head to Harrington with him, riding along on the first leg of the convoy.

“I didn’t have to ask him twice to come with me,” said Masse. “He’s been in the Boy Scouts and put flags on stones in Brunswick, where he lives, so he understands the whole concept.”

That concept is also Wreaths Across America’s mission: “remember, honor, teach.”

“Now he’ll see it on a much larger scale,” his grandfather said.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.