UTICA — Delivering wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery last year as part of the National Wreaths Across America outreach was the “highest honor” for Walmart truck driver Hal Coleates.

“It was not anything I thought it would be — of course, nothing of tremendous value in life ever is,” admitted Coleates, a veteran himself, as he addressed the audience Monday during the Wreaths Across America ceremony at Notre Dame Jr.SrHigh School.

Carrying the “precious cargo” of 5,000 wreaths in his specially decorated Walmart trailer, the trek took him from Maine to Virginia with several stops in between for ceremonies to commemorate the event, like the one at the Utica school that afternoon. Coleates said at one stop he was embraced by a weeping woman who charged him with a second — and just as important — mission.

She gave him a card with her own late son’s name and information, asking Coleates to visit him in Arlington since she was unable to make the trip at that time.

General Transportation Manager Danielle Sexton from the Walmart Distribution Center in Marcy said Walmart is donating the services of 16 of its tractor trailers to transport wreaths to veterans’ graves in cemeteries across the country. The deliveries are part of the company’s involvement in the National Wreaths Across America Day coming up Saturday, Dec. 17.

Walmart has taken part in Wreaths Across America for 15 years, Sexton said. More than 40 Walmart and Sam’s Club Distribution Centers and 100 Walmart drivers across the country are involved in transporting wreaths from Maine to their final destinations.

Sexton said the Walmart Foundation provided a $450,000 grant in 2019 to be distributed over three years, helping Wreaths across America sponsor 15,000 wreaths of its own each year. Walmart also provides transportation to deliver 100,000 wreaths to more than 30 locations across the country, she said.

A trailer carrying balsam fir veterans’ wreaths was relayed through the Marcy distribution center Monday. It made an appearance at Notre Dame for a ceremony featuring the school Navy Junior ROTC cadets, including Sexton’s own Chief Petty Officer son Isaiah Sexton, who led the ceremony, plus her younger children Noah and Leah as well.

Isaiah Sexton said Wreaths Across America was inspired by the donation of 5,000 wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery from the Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine back in 1992. That outreach became an annual event, the cadet said. Today, the National Wreaths Across America Day event places wreaths at the gravesites of Arlington National Cemetery and more than 3,400 other locations across the country, at sea and abroad.

Along the way, the convoys stop at schools, monuments, veterans homes and communities to remind people how important it is to remember and honor the sacrifices of veterans.

“The annual journey from Harrington, Maine to Arlington National Cemetery has become known as the world’’s largest veterans’ parade,” Isaiah Sexton said.

For more information on Wreaths Across America, to sponsor a wreath or to volunteer, visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.