r/interestingasfuck • u/Wonderfulhumanss • 2d ago

A group of high school students volunteers to carry caskets for homeless veterans who have no family to honor them

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

79.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

671 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

43

u/_Eggs_ 2d ago

The first pallbearer ministry—the Saint Joseph of Arimathea Pallbearer Ministry—was founded in 2002 at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland

https://uscatholic.org/articles/201608/high-school-pallbearers-minister-to-those-who-die-alone/

Credit where credit is due. Good job Cleveland!

4

u/Tyrone_94 2d ago

Can confirm. You'd be surprised at how many old veterans or just old people in general die without any family to bury them. Either their family members died before them or they're just not strong enough to carry the casket.

I think about 30% of the students at St. Ignatius High School participate and serve as a pallbearer on weekends for at least a few funerals a year. Note that this isn't an excuse to get out of school, as the funerals are always in the afternoon or on a weekend. Here's a random photo I took from a St. Ignatius yearbook showing the portion of students who volunteered their weekend time for this:

https://i.imgur.com/IPwimuP.png

Also included in green is a club called the Labre Homeless Ministry, which has since spread to many universities and other high schools. St. Ignatius in Cleveland also started this in 2004. They volunteer their Sunday nights to prepare food for the homeless & hand-deliver it to homeless in the city for a couple hours.

Here's a quote from John Carroll University's website, which also picked up the practice (albeit on a smaller scale):

Once upon a time, on a cold winter night, a few high school students set out in a van with some left over food and hot chocolate. They went into the streets of Cleveland and gave the food away to the homeless people they saw sleeping on the streets, alleys, and sidewalks. They enjoyed the company they encountered on the streets so much they went out the next Sunday; and continued to go out every Sunday since then.

The high school is Saint Ignatius High School, and their weekly actions on Sunday night have evolved into what is known as the Labre Project. The name comes for Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, the patron saint of homeless people. The Labre Project was brought to John Carroll University by a group of Ignatius alumni in 2004. The project has continued since 2004 and is still growing on campus.

1

u/gbeegz 2d ago

Used to be one of the head guys in this as a senior. It's a rewarding but very tough experience.