A contingent of San Diego Eagles joined more than a thousand other volunteers on Saturday, December 13, at Miramar National Cemetery to honor veterans buried and inurned there and to recognize in particular a member of the BC Class of 1957.

The group participated in Wreaths across America, a national effort to remember the fallen . . . honor those who serve . . . teach children the value of freedom. BC alumni chapters participate around the country, with large contingents at Bourne and Arlington national cemeteries. The San Diego chapter had previously partaken at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on Point Loma, but, having honored the BC alumni interred there, moved to Miramar this year.

Joining the chapter contingent was Dara Garrison, our liaison at BC alumni, and her father, Jonathan Edge, a retired Navy veteran. Dara had attended a conference in San Diego during the week and her father was visiting where he had formerly served.

After attending a moving opening ceremony at the cemetery’s assembly area, chapter members placed several wreaths at the headstones of veterans buried there, acknowledging them by name and offering a salute or other gesture of respect.

Then, chapter members gathered at the columbarium, where cremated remains are stored, and located where the cremated remains of Richard John Clarke, Jr., ’57, and his wife, Marilyn, are kept.

The group laid a wreath on the ground beneath the plaque and paid its respects.

Richard J. Clarke, Jr. was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in July 1935 and died in Oceanside, Calif., in October 2017. He served as an officer in the Navy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several San Diego Eagles spent Saturday morning weeding, mulching, and otherwise beautifying the entrance to REINS, a therapeutic horse-riding program in Fallbrook. (REINS is the acronym for Riding Emphasizing Individual Needs and Strengths. They deal with students ranging in age from 2 to 85, providing equine-assisted therapy. They also provide such therapy to active duty and veteran military, as well as first responders.)

I’m a volunteer at REINS, one morning a week. When I learned they sponsored group functions, I realized this could be a service activity for the chapter and others agreed.

Clip-Clop Lane, according to REINS, “is the heart of our property. Named after the sound our horse’s hooves make ambling down it, it is the way folks enter our property for the first time. The long paved pathway leads you right to our welcome sign. Our students look forward to taking their horses down Clip-Clop lane every lesson.”

You can get a sense of that sound with this video (9 seconds) I took while assisting on a lesson.

That’s where we spent most of the morning. When we wrapped up weeding and mulching, Allison Solander, volunteer coordinator at REINS, gave us a tour of the facility, including the tack room, where bridles, saddles, stirrups, etc., for each of the 23 horses at REINS are stored. And then we visited several of the horses, some in stalls and most in paddocks, on their “lunch break.” Saturday is a regular class day, so four times during the morning, four students on horses, accompanied by a therapist, horse leader, and often a side walker (to assist in physical safety) walked and sometimes trotted in 30-minute sessions. We were told there was a two-year wait list for Saturday sessions.

Here’s a gallery of some scenes of our activity on Clip-Clop.

Most of us interacted with horses during our work. Some horses were curious and came up to the fences near us. My granddaughter had an individual moment with Bam-Bam.

Most of us, post-activity, went to nearby Casa Estrella Cocina de Mexico for lunch. Muy bueno.

We’ll be looking to do another event at REINS.

San Diego Eagles gathered again yesterday for the annual “Wreaths Across America” activity at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

In addition to recognizing and honoring all of those buried there, the Chapter particularly recognized Dorothy Cerro ’59, a veteran of the Korean War.

While information is incomplete, Cerro is listed by the University as among three BC graduates buried or inurned at Fort Rosecrans. (The Chapter had recognized LT John Kelleher ’58 and TSGT Edward Merikle ’51 in previous years.) Cerro is identified as a member of the Class of 1959, but she was likely in the graduate nursing program. Elsewhere identified as a nurse in an army MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit, she was a First Lieutenant, which implies she had completed college elsewhere. She would have been in her late 20s, early 30s at BC.

She died in 2012 and is inurned with the remains of her husband, Robert, who had also served in Korea. Records indicate the couple spent their last years as residents of San Diego County.

Wreaths Across America sponsors and organizes events such as this at national cemeteries throughout the US. The Boston College Veterans Alumni Network has sponsored  the event for several years at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, Mass., on Cape Cod. Alumni chapters have also begun to participate at Arlington National Cemetery and elsewhere.