Photo courtesy Eternal Reefs
Sacred Living Sacred Dying is committed to preserving and protecting the marine environment for the benefit of future generations. We continue to offer alternatives to the traditional burial plots. To address the burial at sea concept, we are helping to bring Eternal Reefs to Hawaii for those who wish to have their ashes placed in an environmentally friendly ball to create a reef.
In the past, we have been in contact with George Frankel at Eternal Reefs,discussing ways to establish Eternal Reefs and a Reef Ball Foundation in Hawaii. Presently, more than 1,800 Eternal Reefs are placed off the coast of Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia.
ETERNAL REEFS VIDEO
The Sundance Channel has produced “Big Ideas For A Small Planet, The Greening of Religion”. It is an important program showing the leadership many organized religions are demonstrating regarding the importance of being good stewards of Planet Earth. We invite you to watch this informative seven-minute video about Eternal Reefs.
One of the areas covered by the program is the ability of religions to help preserve, protect, and enhance the environment through death and memorialization.
REEF BALLS
For those individuals who choose to have their ashes molded into a reef ball on cremation, their ashes are mixed with a specialized concrete formula that brings the pH content of a Reef Ball close to neutral. With the neutral pH content and a textured outer surface, the Reef Ball is the perfect medium to allow the microorganisms (those little buds of life floating in the currents looking for a home) a place to land, burrow, mature, and propagate before predators can feed on them.
With more than 700,000 Reef Balls in the oceans worldwide, they are the only reef material initially designed to replicate the natural substrata that Mother Nature uses for her reef development. They are used in more than 70 countries and are part of more than 4,000 projects for various purposes.
These Reef Balls are strategically placed to create ocean reefs. The reefs made through green burial are living environmental memorials that help preserve, protect, and enhance the marine environment.
WAYS TO PARTICIPATE
Family members and friends are invited and encouraged to participate in the casting and creation of their loved one’s reef memorial. The entire process is designed to help heal the soul and the earth.
For those who choose to participate, they have the opportunity to personalize the memorial with handprints and written messages on the damp concrete.
Seashells can be provided to add to the top as both decoration and additional habitat. Personalized plaques are added to the Reef Ball, identifying who was memorialized so that visitors who come to these reefs can see who made this fantastic contribution to the marine environment.
THE VIEWING
Once the memorials have been cast and allowed to cure, family members and friends will have a viewing. They can visit with their loved ones and take pictures and rubbings of the plaques. Children are provided with sidewalk chalk, and messages can be written all over the Reef Balls. Sometimes, children climb inside the memorials and draw on the inside walls of the reefs.
THE PLACEMENT AND DEDICATION
The day after the viewing, all the memorials are taken to the reef site on one boat while families sail out on another. Each Reef Ball is announced and individually placed on the ocean floor. After all the memorials are placed, the family boat moves over the reef site, and each family is given the opportunity to individually dedicate the reef to their loved one. Once all the families have dedicated the site to their loved ones, it is then dedicated to everyone who has been memorialized on this day.
Certificates are provided to the family, giving them the exact coordinates where their loved ones have been placed so they can return to visit.
SECURITY OF THE REEF BALLS
Brilliantly designed, the round, hollow, and vented design leaves little space for storm energy to build up and move Reef Balls. With more than 80% of the Reef Balls’ weight in the reef’s lower quarter, they are extremely stable in the marine environment.
TO LEARN MORE
To learn more about Eternal Reefs, visit www.eternalreefs.com We at Sacred Living Sacred Dying look forward to welcoming and working with Eternal Reefs and the Reef Ball Foundation to preserve and protect our Hawaii marine environment for the benefit of future generations.