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A Florida firm is giving households a brand new choice to memorialize their family members whereas serving to the setting.
Sarasota-based Everlasting Reefs affords memorials by incorporating a particular person’s cremated stays with a reef ball and submerging in onto the ocean flooring.
“We’ve labored with greater than 3,000 households, and your complete course of is designed to contain the household within the memorialization course of,” Everlasting Reefs CEO George Frankel informed USA TODAY.
Frankel mentioned a household could be concerned by mixing the cremated stays into concrete, including handprints, written messages and non–invasive mementos like cash their beloved one had traveled with or navy metals.
“Generally you’ll be able to actually inform who the particular person was in life by the supplies left as mementos,” Frankel mentioned.
The reef ball design was began by a group of divers on the College of Georgia within the 1980’s, based on Frankel. Once they noticed the degradation of coral reefs, they got here up with the design that appears like a “whiffle ball reduce in half.”
The reef ball is product of a pH-neutral concrete, with 80% of its weight concentrated within the decrease 40% to make the reef secure. Frankel mentioned storm vitality will move round, via and over the reef balls as a consequence of their hole and vented design.
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Mom Nature has two questions once you’re placing supplies within the ocean, Frankel mentioned.
“One, will it keep the place it’s put? As a result of if it’s not going to remain the place it’s put then it’s extra harmful than it’s good. The second factor is, is it made of fabric Mom Nature needs to work with?”
Frankel was working with one of many divers who promised his father to place his cremated stays with the reef when the concept resonated with him — memorial reefs.
With social media as a instrument, lately Everlasting Reefs has supplied a special approach to memorialize family members apart from a burial or cremation.
Because the starting of COVID-19 pandemic, Frankel mentioned his firm has been inundated with requests for info. The worth of the reef can vary from $2,500 to $7,500, relying on the dimensions and household involvement.
To date, 2,500 Everlasting Reefs have been positioned off the coasts of Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
“Unexpectedly right here comes this idea of utilizing memorialization as a instrument to enhance the marine setting,” Frankel mentioned. “Individuals will have the ability to select between a number of totally different choices that may improve the setting, and I believe that’s nice.”
Comply with reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. E-mail: agilbert@usatoday.com.
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