A New Mexico high school wood shop class is making urns for the burial of homeless veterans with no family of record.
A New Mexico high school woodworking class decided to give homeless veterans a proper burial by donating handmade urns to those who would have been buried in a cardboard box otherwise. [2]
I find the entire idea of homeless veterans utterly disgraceful after what they’ve given to our country.
I could go on, but suffice it to say, it would be an honor to provide urns to respect these men and women in these circumstances.
If there’s interest, I’m happy to reach out to the shop teacher to see if the school will share the plans.
If you know of a local group that provides burial services, we can reach out to them as well.
It would also be nice to find out if ceramic urns would be acceptable as well I would be willing to help on that or maybe some way of decorating them with some metal work. I have to agree this is something I think that we should check into and investigate.
The sad thing is that - while this is a wonderful idea and worth doing - it does nothing to honor (or help) them while they are still alive. I’m not even sure how we would find such folks, but that’s another topic.
I completely agree. It would be great if someone with a military background knew of something we could do, like maybe a dinner or clothing drive or other tangible signs of respect.
Holly, thank you for the ping. Veterans in general are very appreciative of anything done to help them.
The homeless problem as a whole is a tragedy and it is especially so when it involves our veterans.
First, though I want to let you know that the VA provides a ton of resources available to the veteran like healthcare, counseling and job search. They even have a special emphasis on homeless veterans.
You can find this out here:
They also provide some burial resources:
There are also a number of charitable organizations that work hard to make a vets transition back to civilian life and disabled veterans lives easier. (These are just a few.)
Having said this there are a number of avenues where we could probably help.
Many veteran families struggle with the loss of a beloved family member who is a veteran, especially if it is in the line of duty. The military has entire service organizations to assist with this. Unfortunately, some get left behind and worse some end up homeless. Many times it is because they are unaware of the help available, have no one to assist them or are just in such bad shape emotionally they don’t know where to go. I would help them find resources at the VA first. Secondly, I recommend like @shoottx we reach out to the VA cemetery. They can probably point you in the right direction wrt urns.
I found this on the web, too:
I like the idea and will help if I can. I also know some local folks I can reach out to at the VA to get some answers. I would also think that ceramic urns would be appreciated as well. How many do we plan to make?
A friend of mine at Rockler makes urns for his friends and family. Cremation is a very popular burial choice these days. Maybe he’ll have some plans I can get. Rockler already has a pen turning for veterans annual event.
Thank you for that extensive list of resources, @coloneldan. I’ll take a look. I attended the pen turning event at Rockler. It was great!
Since this is an idea I got from a news article, it’s still in the beginning stages. If you’re open to meeting in person at the space, I’d be interested in brainstorming to take this beyond talking and actually implement a first project that could lead to others.
Other interested members would be invited once we find a day/time that works.
I made about 8 wooden urns at DMS last year and never did anything with them. They are sitting in my garage waiting to be thrown away, like every other project I’ve worked on.
Anyway, I would be willing to give them for this cause. 5 are walnut with birdseye maple tops and 5 are maple.
Let me know if you continue on with this project and I’ll get them to you.
I have no idea what the minimum volume should be for an urn. Also, is wood an acceptable material? I’ve personally have never seen a wooden urn - but then again, my knowledge is limited.
Urns need to be about 1 square inch per pound of human. I make mine at about 200 square inches.
Metal urns are more common, but wooden urns are made and sold by all of the casket/urn manufactures.
