Studies show that despite housing efforts established by the United States government and other organizations, approximately 50,000 military veterans are now homeless across the country.
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A few who attend the all-boys Catholic prep school are taking that tenet to heart and putting it into action by taking on a volunteer experience that has them serving as pallbearers at the funerals of homeless men and women. These once revered members of the society face a seemingly insurmountable obstacle when it comes to homelessness, many also die in nursing homes and shelters.
But they served their country, and that’s all that mattered to students at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy who stepped up to serve as pallbearers at the funerals of those three homeless veterans.
As Veterans Day approaches, more students will serve as pallbearers next month in the Detroit area.
Students at University of Detroit Jesuit High School are encouraged to become “men for others”.
The school, located in Detroit with a student body of about 900 male students in grades 7-12, launched the pallbearer program as part of its service team, the Ignatian Service Corps.
“This was an opportunity to give something to somebody who finished their life on the fringe of society”, said Tom Lennon, 17, a senior at the University of Detroit Jesuit School.
Commenting on the honor to serve at this outreach, senior-year student Leonard Froehlich said, “The men we honored today put their lives on the line for our country and now they deserve our dignity and service in return”.
“I think for the young men here at U of D, it teaches them the value and dignity of life at all levels”, Todd Wilson, a faculty member, who leads the school’s service team told the wire service. They actually traveled to Cleveland to learn from a similar program they have there. The Great Lakes National Cemetery will be the final resting place of the vets.
The Dignity Memorial Network’s Homeless Veterans Program provides the caskets. The bodies of the veterans are turned over to the funeral homes after the county medical examiner’s office has made unsuccessful attempts to contact loved ones to claim the bodies for 90 days, Today reports. Working with the nearby Desmond Funeral Homes, student leaders developed training sessions to best prepare participants for the program.
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“The students’ service is quite simply valuable to our firm because that is what we do”, said Desmond, commending the teenagers.
