Submitted Photo A display with a Missing Man table and Cherry Blossom Tree at Pizza Ranch offers an opportunity for people to reflect on the sacrifices of those who served and donate to placing wreaths on the graves of veterans.

A Missing Man table display and Cherry Blossom Tree have been installed at Pizza Ranch in Minot.

Dog tags are hung on each blossom in honor of those men and women, who in service to their country, were separated from loved ones during holiday seasons.

Whether active duty, discharged, retired or reserved, they were someone who, at one point in life, wrote a blank check made payable to the “United States of America,” for an amount “up to and including his/her life.”

A donation of $17 will help place a wreath on a veteran’s grave on the second Saturday of December during the Wreaths Across America ceremony. With every $17 donation, a dog tag with a penny attached and the name of a fallen hero from the Vietnam and Gulf War eras will be added to a cherry blossom.

Veterans from the Vietnam and the Persian Gulf wars are invited to request the following coins be added to a dog tag in honor of those with whom they served. Simply place a small note in the donation glass block with the name, rank, branch of service and type of coin.

– Nickle: trained in boot camp together with the deceased.

– Dime: served with the soldier in some capacity.

– Quarter: were with the soldier at time of death.

Last year Pizza Ranch in Minot sponsored 207 wreaths, and wreaths were laid last December during the Wreaths Across America ceremony. This year, Pizza Ranch would like to increase its goal to support fallen heroes of the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars as well as 350 North Dakota soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery.