ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) -- Elmira Police Department officers gathered together at Saint Peter and Paul's Cemetery on Thursday afternoon. They wanted to have a ceremony to honor former EPD officers who have passed away. 

Christopher Kamas, the organizer of this wreath-laying ceremony, wants this act of service to become a tradition that carries on. Today was the first of 37 officers being honored by EPD. 

“I think we need to remember them at this time when we remember our other loved ones,” he said. 

Kamas said Elmira's officers are traveling to local cemeteries to personally place wreaths on graves of formers members of the police department. 

“Many of them were not buried in the national cemetery because many of the people we're placing the wreaths on...wanted to be buried in the ground,” he said.  

 Kamas said many former officers have served the community in many different ways. These ceremonies serve as a way to remember those who gave their lives to acts of service. 

“They served the community,” he said. “Some of them served the military. They all served the police department and citizens of the City of Elmira...some for 20 years, some for 30 years, some for 35 years.” 

Kamas is helping organize these ceremonies, but he is also mourning and honoring the lives of his fellow officers. Today, active officers honored Joseph Marrone, who passed away in 1996. 

"Joe Marrone and I were close, along with other people that were in Jones Court," he said. 

If you would like to donate to help lay wreaths for fallen officers, you can send money to the Elmira Retired Officers Association.