Teens Give Back By Making Urns For Homeless Veterans in Shop Class

These teens are making a difference in their community by making urns for homeless Veterans so that their remains may be respectfully laid to rest. This touching act of giving back, started in a New Mexico high school shop class taught by teacher Gino Perez. Mr. Perez a U.S. Navy Veteran, explained it started when he noticed many of the homeless Vets had unclaimed ashes and no real urns.

Perez, said “I thought to myself it would be a lot more honorable [for these Veterans] to hand craft an urn that they could then put these cremated remains in.” A student shared, “It hit me kind of hard. These people needed a home other than a plastic container.”

The students embraced the service project, with record participation numbers. Under Perez’s instruction simple but beautiful hand crafted boxes were cut, shaped, sanded, and varnished by each student. In the center some boxes were even adorned with a circular metal emblem denoting the military service of the Veteran.

“One piece of wood can be something special, one regular person CAN do something special.”

One of the students enthusiastically involved with the project also became a recipient of this blessing. This student, Juan Pacheco, was also in need of an urn for his Veteran father. It was a remarkable turn of events when the shop teacher found that this project was also going to be a direct blessing for one of his students. At the same time it was an emotional and honorable endeavor for Juan who now had the opportunity of hand crafting the final resting place for his father. Mr. Perez and his students should be commended for this much needed and very heartfelt way of giving back to our Veterans in need.