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Gardens of Memory Cemetery Carries Out Final Wishes

The final wishes of Elizabeth Rakes are carried out as her coffin is taken to it’s grave-site in Gardens of Memory Cemetery in Muncie, IN on a horse-drawn carriage. Rakes friends and family walked behind the carriage on the way to the grave-site. Patti Blake/ The Star Press

Resthaven Memorial Park joins Wreaths Across America

At Resthaven Memorial Park on Saturday, the Mercer County Civil Air Patrol and area veterans gathered for a ceremony to honor deceased veterans by placing wreaths on their graves. This is a national event honoring all Veterans. A large crowd gathered with all branches of the military represented and joined keynote speaker Judge Sadler of Mercer County, WV to commemorate these brave solders. There was the playing of taps, and singing of the national anthem and God Bless America. The event ended with airplanes flying by and a wreath was placed on every Veterans gravesite.

Click here to see a slideshow of the event.

Memorial honors those who donate bodies to Michigan State University at East Lawn Memory Gardens

A green granite wall marked with an MSU seal and an inscription that honors “the persons who gave their bodies to Michigan State University for the advancement of medical science and the good of their fellow man” is the focal point of the new MSU Memorial Section at East Lawn Memory Gardens in Okemos.

Read More Here

Crossfit Foundation: Wounded Warrior Project

Laura Bullock a StoneMor Partners (parent company of Aftercareplanning.com) employee wanted to bring attention to this much deserving foundation called Special Operations Warrior Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to supporting men and women of the military and their surviving families. All proceeds were donated to CrossFitters who were doing a fundraiser for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

On September 17th, 2011, CrossFitters from around the world came together to endure 17 minutes of one of the most grueling workouts in honor of those men and women who have given a lifetime of service and sacrifice.

For 17 minutes, they pushed themselves further, challenged themselves deeper, felt the doubt and wondered what the hell they got themselves into, but then remembered why they were there and appreciated fully those who we wish to honor. We turned to our community of friends and family, and asked them to join us by donating what they were inspired to give to our two phenomenal organizations. Our goal this year was to raise $3 million dollars and the chapters worldwide were able to raise $2.2 million. This will go a long way to helping the soldiers and their families.

Our beneficiaries are The Special Operations Warrior Foundation and The CrossFit Foundation.

About The Special Operations Warrior Foundation
The Special Operations Warrior Foundation provides full scholarship grants and educational and family counseling to the surviving children of special operations personnel who die in operational or training missions and immediate financial assistance to severely wounded special operations personnel and their families.

About The CrossFit Foundation
The CrossFit Foundation provides support and assistance to the men and women of the military, law enforcement and first responder communities and their families, as well as aims to enhance the quality of life and fitness of deserving families by sponsoring such worthwhile efforts as Infant Swim Rescue (ISR), providing exercise equipment, and other beneficial acts as determined by the Foundation.

About The Sportsgrants Foundation
The Sportsgrants Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was established in 2008 by professional athlete and social entrepreneur Scott Zagarino. As an advocate of the grassroots dollar and a veteran of event-driven fundraisers, Zagarino’s mission is clear: modernize the event driven fundraiser, activate one global fundraising team and provide “net donation” grants to charities. Sportsgrants’ patent-pending technology platform shifts the burden of event driven fundraising from the charity to the individual, creating efficiency and cost savings for the charity and choice and empowerment for the individual. To date, Sportsgrants has raised nearly $5 million and provided grants for a variety of charities and causes.

Forest Lawn Cemetery Donates Plot to Fallen Officer

Forest Lawn Cemetery Donates Plot to Fallen Officer

Laurens County Advertiser

10 years later

By SCOTT POWELL Ledger Staff Writer spowell@gaffneyledger.com
Garrney Ledger

A large American flag hung from the Gaffney Fire Department ladder truck Sunday afternoon for a September 11 memorial program at Frederick Memorial Gardens.

Every year Gaffney Police Chief Rick Turner joins Americans nationwide in remembering a terrible day when nearly 3,000 people lost their lives.

The 10-year-anniversary of the World Trade Center collapse, a plane crash into the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93 passengers fought back against hijackers have led many Americans to reflect on how the terrorism acts on Sept. 11, 2001, changed their view on the world.

Turner remembers how the heroism of first responders led to a renewed community support for law enforcement. He remembers how local residents helped with the rescue effort at Ground Zero and showed their compassion in the months following the tragic events.

The 26-year veteran Gaffney police officer sees the Sept. 11 anniversary as part of the continuing efforts by Americans to understand why 2,948 people lost their lives in the national tragedy.

“It’s important for us to remember what happened. We made it through the storm. The grief is still there,” Turner said. “These anniversaries are an important time for us to reflect on our memories of the tragedy and what this all means.”

State Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler (R-Gaffney) asked community members to take the time to remember all the sacrifices families have made in the 10 years since September 11. In a statement Sunday, Peeler said the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington set into motion a chain of events that altered the course of the country.

“We’ll never be the same as a nation, and we should always take time to remember the sacrifices made on that day,” Peeler said. “September 11 made everyday Americans stand up and take action. This bravery started with the actions of the men and women on United Flight 93, who stopped the hijackers from killing any more innocent Americans on the ground. This bravery has continued with our soldiers and law enforcement officers fighting around the world to protect our home.”

Ten years after September 11, Turner still remembers how Cherokee County residents shifted their attention from being stunned over the terrorist attacks to coming together as a community to provide assistance in New York City. Trucks were driven by county residents to deliver supplies for rescue workers involved in the Ground Zero effort while other local residents have continued the county’s long tradition of military service.

“There was a dramatic increase in support for law enforcement, firefighters and emergency responders,” Turner said. “This community support is so critical. It’s what gives us the drive and desire to do what we do every day to protect our community.”

Cherokee County Veterans Affairs Officer Todd Humphries noticed the difference in the country’s attitude towards military service immediately following the September 11 events. He served in the U.S. Army from 1993-1998 and spent 2003 on active duty with the South Carolina National Guard in Iraq.

“The military had really been downsized a lot during the late 1990s,” Humphries said. “When our nation was attacked on September 11, it woke the sleeping giant.”

Humphries has watched the military’s focus change from the role of peacekeepers to counterterrorism efforts like clearing roadside bombs at security checkpoints.

“There were a lot of soldiers who had been off active duty who were called back into service. We still have local residents going back and forth to Iraq and Afghanistan every day. Our mission is to always be ready.”

Remembering Sept. 11 at Roselawn Burial Park

Remembering Sept. 11
Nation set to reflect on tragedy
Martinsville Bulletin

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Members of the Martinsville Exchange Club have created a Sept. 11 Field of American Flags with the names of the 411 first responders who were killed when they ran toward the World Trade Center in New York after the towers were struck by planes on Sept. 11, 2001. The flag display is at the entrance to Roselawn Burial Park near the corner of Clearview and Liberty streets. It will remain in place until 7:30 tonight. (Bulletin photo by Mike Wray)

NEW YORK (AP) — Ten years on, Americans come together today where the World Trade Center soared, where the Pentagon stands as a fortress once breached, where United Airlines Flight 93 knifed into the earth.

They will gather to pray in cathedrals in our greatest cities and to lay roses before fire stations in our smallest towns, to remember in countless ways the anniversary of the most devastating terrorist attacks since the nation’s founding, and in the process mark the milestone as history itself.

As in earlier observances, bells will toll again to mourn the loss of those killed in the attacks. Americans will lay eyes on new memorials in lower Manhattan, rural Pennsylvania and elsewhere, concrete symbols of the resolve to remember and rebuild.

But much of the weight of this year’s ceremonies lies in what will largely go unspoken — the anniversary’s role in prompting Americans to consider how the attacks changed them and the larger world and the continuing struggle to understand 9/11’s place in the lore of the nation.

“A lot’s going on in the background,” said Ken Foote, author of “Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy,” examining the role that veneration of sites of death and disaster plays in modern life. “These anniversaries are particularly critical in figuring out what story to tell, in figuring out what this all means.

“It forces people to figure out what happened to us,” he said.

On Saturday in rural western Pennsylvania, more than 4,000 people began to tell the story again.

At the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial near the town of Shanksville, former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden joined the families of the 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 who fought back against their hijackers.

“The moment America’s democracy was under attack our citizens defied their captors by holding a vote,” Bush said. “The choice they made would cost them their lives.”

The Pennsylvania memorial park is years from completion. But the dedication and a service to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks are critical milestones, said Sally Ware, one of the volunteer “ambassadors” who has worked as a guide at the site since the disaster.

Today, the nation’s focus turns to ceremonies at the Pentagon, just outside Washington, D.C., and in lower Manhattan for the dedication of the national Sept. 11 memorial. President Barack Obama planned to attend ceremonies at all three sites and was scheduled to speak at a service tonight at the Kennedy Center.

The New York ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m., with a moment of silence 16 minutes later — coinciding with the exact time when the first tower of the trade center was struck by a hijacked jet. And then, one by one, the reading of the names of the 2,977 killed on Sept. 11 — in New York, at the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania.

They include the names of 37 of Lt. Patrick Lim’s fellow officers from the police department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Lim, assigned to patrol the trade center with an explosives detection dog, rushed in to the north tower after it was hit to help evacuate workers. He and a few others survived despite still being inside a fifth-floor stairwell when the building fell.

In the years since, Lim said he has wrestled with survivor’s guilt, realizing the last of those he’d urged ahead of him were crushed when the tower collapsed. He took shelter in selective memory, visualizing the ground covered with women’s shoes amid the destruction.

“That’s how I got through that, because what was attached to the shoes was a lot worse,” Lim said.

The 10th anniversary has forced Lim to revisit an experience he’s worried too many people have pushed from their minds. But the approach of Sunday’s ceremonies has convinced him of the value of revisiting Sept.11, both for himself and others.

When it happened, talking about the events of that day “wasn’t easy for me. This was very difficult. But it became … a catharsis,” he said. “What I want is for people to remember what happened.”

And so arrives a weekend dedicated to remembrance, with hundreds of ceremonies across the country and around the globe — from a memorial Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to a ceremony featuring nine-stories-tall replicas of the twin towers on a plaza in Paris.

It’s easy to forget: As much as Sept. 11 was an American tragedy, it had a profound affect far beyond U.S. shores. Many who died were citizens of other countries. And the attacks set in motion a decade of wars, more terrorist attacks in Europe and Asia and a worldwide law enforcement offensive that has netted tens of thousands of suspected terrorists.

Today, for all the magnitude of the attacks, some of the most powerful ceremonies will likely be the smallest and most personal.

In Newtown, Conn., retired American Stock Exchange floor broker Howard Lasher planned a ceremony this morning under the canopy of six maple trees standing alongside his gravel driveway; their trunks are painted to resemble an American flag.

Lasher commissioned the painting in the weeks just after Sept. 11, 2001, as a tribute to nine Amex colleagues and the son of another who died inside the trade center.

“I wanted something that would reach out to people, that people would not forget,” Lasher said of the memorial, which has since become a local landmark. “When people drive by here, I want them to envision what this country has been, for all its greatness, and that we should not forget the people who were lost that day and in all the wars, because they died defending what it represents.”

And in Brown City, Mich. — with a population of about 1,300 and no direct connection to the attacks — firefighters plan to lay 343 roses on a 15,000-pound steel beam salvaged from the World Trade Center, in honor of their New York City brethren who perished in the disaster.

Since venturing to New York in June to claim the beam and bring it home, the Michigan firefighters have finished building a brick plaza, lighted around the clock and crowned by three flagpoles. Already, this has become a local shrine, Chief Jim Groat said.

A few days ago, a couple from St. Joseph, Mich. who happened to be driving through, pulled into the fire station lot when they spotted a sign for the memorial. Groat came out to speak with them and the woman explained that she was a flight attendant for American Airlines who’d been aboard a plane the morning of the attacks.

Then she turned to face the steel beam from the trade center.

“She just stood there and cried. She said she was just honored that somebody still cares,” Groat recalled. The chief observed silently, before offering an invitation.

“Will I see you here on Sept. 11?” he asked.

“I’ll be here,” she answered.

Cemetery Virtual Tours

It’s tough making cemetery arrangements let alone doing it online. But Aftercareplanning.com is dedicated to making the process easy and convenient for everyone. Today our lives have become so fast and busy, who has the time to visit and pre-plan at the cemetery. Why not make your pre-arrangements on Aftercareplanning.com. Now you can feel confident you have chosen the proper cemetery by taking a virtual tour of several of our affiliated cemeteries that have these beautiful 360 high definition tours. You can visit your local cemetery without ever leaving your home!

Below are the 22 affiliated cemeteries that have created virtual tours. You can pan left to right, right to left, and zoom in and out. View and look around the beautiful scenes.

Rolling Green Memorial in West Chester, PA
Allegheny County Memorial Park in Allison Park, PA
South Side Cemetery in Pittsburgh, PA
Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in Mt. Lebanon, PA
Coraopolis Cemetery in Coraopolis, PA
Lakewood Memorial Gardens in Cheswick, PA
Henlopen Memorial Park in Milton, DE
Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, MD
Glen Haven Memorial Park in Glen Burnie, MD
Washington National Cemetery in Suitland, MD
Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, MD
Columbia Memorial Park in Columbia, MD
Crown Hill Cemetery in Twinsburg, OH
Hillside Memorial Park in Akron, OH
Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Peninsula, OH
La Verne Cemetery in La Verne, CA
Lodi Memorial Park in Lodi, CA
Melrose Abbey Memorial Park in Anaheim, CA
Oakmont Memorial Park in Lafayette, CA
Olivet Memorial Park in Colma, CA
Sacramento Memorial Lawn in Sacramento, CA
Sierra View Memorial Park in Olivehurst, CA

Stay tuned as your local cemetery may be the next one to have a virtual cemetery tour.

The Frankford Civil War Memorial Project

The Frankford Civil War Memorial Project was a project that came about because a group wanted to make sure that all the Civil War veterans in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia who were in unmarked graves receive a VA headstone. The headstones are provided free from the VA but it costs about $250 per veteran to have the cemetery set the stone. So the project was to look for individuals or groups to ‘adopt’ a vet. Thanks to the employees of Stonemor Partners, parent company of Aftercareplanning.com, the final soldier of the 33, Isaac Elmer Hersey will receive his headstone.

Information on this project is below.

The Frankford Civil War Memorial Project
Cedar Hill Cemetery
Cheltenham & Frankford Aves.
Philadelphia, PA
The original stones of the 33 veterans have succumbed to the elements over the past century and are in need of replacement. Only a few pieces of the originals remain. We have undertaken the project to replace all 33 stones so that these veterans may rest, assured that they will not be forgotten. Although this project has been a dream for well over 20 years, it has finally come to fruition only in the past 18 months.

Over that period, we have done extensive research to verify each and every veteran through military and pension records, census records, obituaries, marriage and death certificates and whatever other records were necessary to document each veteran. Over this course, we have not only documented each man, we also learned who they were, how and where they lived, what they did for a living, where they were born and died and how they spent the post-war. All are Civil War veterans with the exception of 2, one whom served port-war and one War of 1812 veteran.

Although the Veterans Administration provides the stone at no cost, there is the cost of installing each stone. The total cost was $8250 or $250 per stone which included, setting the foundation and the stone. All this money has been raised to date by donations and sponsorships of the veterans by many individuals and groups. We would like to thank all those that contributed monies to this noble cause.

To date, the stones are on order and are awaiting delivery and installation. Once they are installed, we will set a date for the grand dedication of these stones. We are planning a large ceremony with hundreds of re-enactors and people from all the groups and individuals involved along with political and business leaders and the media. Our goal is to provide awareness to the community of this monument and to help procure even more funding for the complete restoration of the monument itself. The base of the monument was repaired and stabilized a few years ago, but the obelisk is in dire shape of restoration. Only through contributions can this be achieved.

After contacting The Frankford Civil War Memorial Project, they said there was only one soldier left of the original 33 who had not found a sponsor until StoneMor Partners, parent company of Aftercareplanning.com. Here is the soldier’s story.

ISAAC ELMER HERSEY _ Co. A 6th Mass. Infantry Militia

Isaac Elmer Hersey was born on Feb. 1, 1838. He was raised on a farm in Abington MA, the only son, and eldest of Isaac and Olive Hersey’s four children. Abington’s primary industry during the 19th and early 20th century was the manufacture of boots and shoes and her factories would provide nearly one half of the Union Army’s footwear during the War. Wanting a different experience, Isaac moved to Boston as a young man and was working as a clerk when he enlisted in the 6th Massachusetts Infantry Militia. He was described as 5’ 8” tall with dark hair, blue eyes, and a dark complexion when mustered as a Corporal in Co. A on July 15, 1864.The 6th Mass Militia already had a venerable reputation from its 2 previous campaigns. The recruiting office for the Company was at the Tremont Temple, a Baptist church in Boston. The patriotic appeals of the pastor helped spark enlistments and the Company’s ranks were filled in just 48hrs. In deference to the church’s involvement, the company chose to call themselves the Temple Guards. When their service expired, they returned to Boston, where they were mustered-out.
Isaac had spent time during his service in the Philadelphia area; guarding confederate prisoners on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River. After the war he returned to Philadelphia and in the 1879 Philadelphia directory he’s listed as a clerk, living on Melrose Street. He never married and sometime in the spring of 1880, he became ill with smallpox which had no cure. Isaac was taken to the Municipal Hospital, on Hart Lane, and died there on May 15, 1880 at 42 years old.
He was buried the next day in the Soldier’s Circle at Cedar Hill Cemetery where he remains today in an unmarked grave.

Online Burial Pre-Planning

With the Internet, it’s a new world for pre-planning your final wishes and making advance arrangements. When it comes time to make your burial pre-arrangements, there is something new – AfterCarePlanning.com.

It used to be that consumers visited a number of cemeteries to learn about their options and make purchases based on their plans. Along the way, they dealt with a myriad of sales people and mingled alongside grieving families making arrangements for someone who had recently passed.

The entire process of pre-planning is changing dramatically.

Planning Burial Arrangements Online

Now, some very credible organizations, like AfterCarePlanning.com, offer consumers across the United States a way to become educated on pre-arrangements and make specific choices in the privacy of their own homes. Because it spans 25 states, many consumers will find a cemetery in their area that is serviced by the AfterCarePlanning.com. Step-by-step, their website walks a consumer through burial choices and provides email and phone resources if and when they want to speak with someone.

Memorialization options range from the traditional burial to inurnment of cremated remains. Burial options offered at cemeteries serviced by AfterCarePlanning.com include:

• In-Ground Burial
• Aboveground Burial : Community Mausoleum
• Aboveground Burial: Private Mausoleum
• Combination In-Ground/Aboveground Burial: Lawn Crypt
• Cremation

Each of these options are thoughtfully described so that the consumer can contemplate the option that best suits their needs, values, and beliefs.

Once a consumer is certain of their wishes, they can complete a transaction online, by mail, or in-person on the AfterCarePlanning.com website. With the advent of services like AfterCarePlanning.com, consumers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to making their pre-planned burial arrangements.

For Loved Ones and Future Generations

Beyond offering the burial pre-planning services, AfterCarePlanning.com has developed options for creating online memorials, requesting cemetery records, and sending floral tributes for the cemeteries they service. Because pre-planning can also be the beginning of considerations for how a life story is archived, recorded and celebrated.

Why Pre-Plan at all?

Answers to this question generally fall into two categories – financial benefits and emotional benefits. Consumers benefit financially by lowering the cost of burial expenses by procuring cemetery space and other items at today’s prices. Also, making sound life and financial decisions requires time, discussion and a little research. The best time to make these decisions is before the need arises. The emotional benefits of pre-planning should not be underestimated either. When arrangement details and financial aspects are secured, loved ones are protected from exhaustive decision making and large expenditures during a difficult time.

Just as you would perform estate planning, financial planning and manage other life events, burial pre-planning is a sound pursuit. Broaching the discussion of your final wishes with caregivers, adult children and spouses can be difficult to navigate. Our March 10 article, “How to Discuss Pre-Arrangements and Estate Planning” offers more perspective on this topic.