What’s New?
We've discovered a new product line that allows us to design personalized temporary grave markers. They provide a very nice way to mark the grave of a loved one until the time a permanent monument can be installed.
If you are interested in discussing the purchase of a permanent cemetery monument, we would be happy to sit down and talk with you. We can help you design a monument through our affiliation with Schlaefer-Martin Memorials, of Green Bay.
We have been sales agents for Schlaefer-Martin Memorials for several years and have assisted many families in the area in selecting affordable memorialization that reflects their personalities and needs.
We also offer other personalized mementos, including candles and laminated copies of the obituary, with several options available to recognize the lifestyle of your loved one. We offer Thumbies, a line of jewelry that casts a fingerprint of your loved one in a silver or gold locket, or keychain.
In addition to the ability to play your cd's on our music system, the funeral home has a stereo docking station for your IPod. If you have personal music selections on your IPod that you would like to have played at visitations, you would be able to bring your device and use our docking station.
We also have digital photo frames available for use with your digital photo slide-shows. You simply have to bring in your pictures on a "thumb drive" so that they can be plugged into the digital frames. You are always welcome to bring your own laptops, or to use our picture boards and easels.
If you are considering personalized video tributes, we can help connect you with professional and affordable vendors.
If you are interested in a dove release, we can connect you with "Memories in Flight," "White Angel Dove Release," or "Wings of the Heart." These companies provide a dove release ... at a local cemetery, church, or at the funeral home.
We're Trying to be Kind to the Environment Too!
We are currently in the process of replacing all of our light bulbs with more energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. We also place a great deal of emphasis on recycling our paper and glass/plastic/aluminum, and have placed blue recycle bins in appropriate places throughout our facility.
Marnocha Funeral Home has used paper hot/cold cups for several years, and also paper plates. The chemical that is the primary component of styrofoam has a half-life of approximately 500,000 years. That's a long time for something to be in the process of breaking down in a landfill. The paper cups cost a few pennies more, but we feel they are worth the investment for the future of our planet. Recently one of our area churches joined us in using those paper hot/cold cups. Thank you, Assumption B.V.M. Parish, for taking a stand for the environment.
We have also decided to use Equal Exchange coffee for our lounge.
The following information can be found on their website, www.equalexchange.com:
"Equal Exchange, founded in 1986, is the oldest and largest for-profit Fair Trade company in the US. We offer organic, gourmet coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, and chocolate bars produced by democratically run farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Equal Exchange's mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world."
Thanks to Pastor Paul Heykes and our friends at St. John Lutheran Church in Morgan for suggesting we give Equal Exchange a try.
Maggie
If you happen to stop at the funeral home when we are not in the midst of a visitation or a funeral service, you will probably have the pleasure of meeting Maggie. Maggie (short for Magdalene Grace) is a sweet four-year-old English Springer Spaniel. For some inexplicable reason, Maggie spends a good amount of time running in right-hand circles.
Over the years, we have read about fellow funeral directors who bring their dogs to the office. They had discovered that there was something about having a friendly, gentle dog wandering about, ever ready for a little petting or ear scratching. Good therapy… a dog offers unconditional love and has a knack for recognizing sorrow and coming to the rescue.
Maggie has already found ways to bring smiles to the faces of those grieving families she has met. She and her soggy stuffed critters have made several young friends. We expect Maggie to provide lots of comfort in the years to come.
