In the ongoing battle to preserve our fragile environment, individuals now can make a difference even after one's time on earth has passed. How? By contributing your cremated remains to a personalized "Memorial Reef," an ecologically sound option for both memorializing one's life while giving a second chance to some of the world's most-endangered coral reef systems.
Eternal Reef, Inc. has introduced Memorial Reefs as a proactive way to help replenish the marine eco-system, while providing a unique final resting place and legacy for the deceased. By blending a person's ash remains into a specially designed artificial reef unit - roughly the size of a large cemetery marker - a Memorial Reef is created and respectfully placed within an officially approved reef development project intended to restore deteriorating coral systems or create new systems in areas that make ecological sense.
Although reef development projects can vary in purpose and composition, Memorial Reefs are made exclusively to support marine sanctuary and fishing-and-diving reef programs.
The environmentally conducive Memorial Reefs have begun to dot the coastal United States, mostly around Florida. They are fashioned from a patented mold system used to produce individual reef modules that closely simulate natural reef formations. The modules, called Reef Ball©, are constructed from a pollutant-free concrete formula that, when hardened and cured, allows coral larvae to attach and gracefully mature. The swell of microorganisms that bind to the reef modules lays the foundation for a renewed neighborhood of plant and animal life.
"For anyone interested in leaving behind an expressive statement about the environment, a Memorial Reef is a sensible and eloquent consideration," explains Don Brawley, founder of Eternal Reefs, Inc. "It is the only permanent, environmentally positive option available today for memorializing an individual's passing. Until now, when cremation has been involved, often a person's ashes are scattered, which basically has a neutral effect on the environment. And in countless other cases, ashes are simply kept interminably by relatives who haven't decided on a fitting final disposition of their loved ones.
"Interment raises its own set of environmental issues, such as encroachment into land above and below the surface," Brawley adds. "A Memorial Reef becomes an idyllic, eco-friendly resting place, a physical legacy where the remains of one's existence also are part catalyst for a new cycle of life."
At prices competitive with interment on land, Eternal Reefs, Inc. handles all aspects of creating and deploying the "permanent, living memorial" that includes one's cremation remains. In fact, remains are not even necessary to request a Memorial Reef simply in honor of an individual or meaningful event.
Eternal Reefs, Inc. also will assist with placing the ashes of more than one family member - and even pets - within the same Memorial Reef unit. In addition it is not necessary to commit all of a person's cremation remains to a Memorial Reef.
To contact Eternal Reef, Inc., consumers can call toll-free 1-888-423-7333. The Eternal Reefs web site, www.eternalreefs.com, also contains further details about Memorial Reefs, including frequently asked questions, ordering instructions and authorization forms for disposition of cremated remains.