Everyone has the right to a proper burial and that is exactly what the Cremation Assistance Foundation in Galesburg is striving for. Jodi Herr, Assistant Director of the foundation, discusses what the foundation is all about:
“It started with my good friend Sue Cunningham and I back in 1981. We were made aware that there were some unclaimed boxes of ashes in funeral homes. This was a concern across Illinois not just in our area. Funding had run out. There were no more funds, no more state aid, and no more city aid to bury people. So people that were either indigent or were unable to afford a burial, left their loved ones at the funeral home and never picked up. Knowing this, years later we came full circle. We decided we not only wanted to do something with those and give them a proper burial but that we also wanted to prevent that from ever occurring again,” shares Herr.
An application must be filled out in order to be eligible for the assistance from the foundation.
For more information or to find the application, log onto cremationassistance.org.
written by Kelsey Crain
To hear more from Jodi, listen to the link below:
