Eternal Reefs

Reefs keep businesses afloat

2005-11-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

Reefs keep businesses afloat

DANA SANCHEZ

Herald Staff Writer

MANATEE - The economic benefits of Manatee County's largest unnatural wonder - an offshore system of 13 artificial reefs well-known to fishermen, divers and fish - have yet to be measured.

Colonized by corals, sponges and mollusks, the reef helps mitigate underwater habitat lost to beach renourishment and attracts the snapper, grouper and mackerel that keep tourists coming back. The reef has also spawned business for several companies.

Manatee County has not conducted an economic impact study of its reef system since it was started in the mid-1970s. Such studies are expensive and erode funds set aside for reef building, said Bill O'Shea, environmental manager of coastal programs for Manatee County.

But studies of other reefs throughout the state show their economic impact on local economies. A study done in Martin County on Florida's east coast in 2003 showed that artificial reefs there generated $13.1 million in revenue and provided for 182 jobs.

Another study done in a five-county area of the Florida Panhandle in 1998 showed that for every dollar spent on artificial reefs, there was a $134 return to the community in the form of tourist spending on items like tackle, food and lodging.

"When you say 'artificial reef' to someone who doesn't fish or dive, they look at you and say: 'What are you talking about?' " said John Stevely, marine extension agent with the Florida Sea Grant Program in Manatee County.

What Stevely is talking about is the almost 20,000 registered boats in Manatee County. A recent project by the Sea Grant Program showed the area was a popular destination for boaters throughout Tampa Bay and inland waters.

Statewide, recreational fishing has an economic impact of around $5 billion.

For business owners who depend on local underwater habitats to make a living, calculating the true dollar value of the area's artificial reefs would be difficult, says Al Jeffrey, owner of 13 Scuba Quest Dive Centers in southwest Florida. "It's invaluable," he said.

Diving instructor Pam Silagyi heads out to the reef three times a week in the summer. Artificial reef material provides an instant food chain starting with the tiniest crustacean and extending to the largest game fish, she said.

"Within days (of formation), the reef starts to come to life," she said. "Almost instantly. It's amazing."

Manatee County's reef program is one of the largest and most progressive in Florida, said Jon Dodrill, artificial-reef coordinator for the state's Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission in Tallahassee.

Boat captains don't usually brag about it too much, said Susan Estler, public relations manager for the Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"As far as the impact on tourism, we suspect its been kept rather low-key by the fishing captains because they have their own spots that they like to go," Estler said. "It's not something they talk about with other people."

The fish and wildlife commission helps local governments monitor and assess reefs, providing grants and developing statewide strategic plans.

Placement of reef material is subject to permitting by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The bottom must be mapped and the material contaminant-free.

"It's not like there's a big blank check from either state or county government," Stevely said. "Keeping the program going has been a challenge."

Manatee's reefs consist of a combination of "materials of opportunity" like rip-rap, remains from the old Skyway Bridge and a manufactured concrete product called reef balls. Tires, car bodies and old washing machines were inappropriately used in the past on artificial reefs. Dumping such materials today is a first-degree misdemeanor and carries fines of up to $5,000, Dodrill said.

Businesses created

Other businesses besides dive shops and fishing charters have sprung up to meet demands associated with artificial reefs. Reef Ball Foundation Inc. and Eternal Reefs are two such companies.

Manatee County is a client of the Reef Ball Foundation, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that has put one million concrete reef balls in 50 countries. The company was co-founded by Todd Barber, a 12-year Manatee resident living temporarily in North Carolina.

A scuba diver, Barber started the company after Hurricane Gilbert wiped out a favorite reef spot where he habitually returned to photograph natural corals and measure their progress.

Reef balls are prefabricated concrete balls with a hollow center, a rough surface texture and vortex-shaped holes. They give shelter to fish and marine life and range in size from a basketball to a Volkswagon. They cost between $45 and $300 apiece.

Free material such as concrete culverts and demolished bridges sometimes ends up costing more and taking longer to deploy than the prefabricated ones, said the county's O'Shea. "Sometimes it's old bridge parts or light posts with steel rebar which has to be cleaned and could present a hazard to divers," O'Shea said.

Manatee County bought 315 reef balls in fiscal year 2005 at a cost of $60,000. The material was paid for partly with $25,000 in county taxes. Manatee also received a $40,000 grant from the state Fish & Wildlife Commission and split $25,000 in funding with Sarasota County from the Sarasota Bay Estuary program.

Reef balls are used mostly in the county's near-shore reefs, where the limited depth demands tighter control over the quality of material used to prevent diver and boater damage.

Burial at sea

Georgia-based Eternal Reefs is a spinoff of Reef Balls. For a price, the company will cast your loved one's ashes in a concrete reef ball and deploy it at a memorial service at sea.

The Sarasota-Bradenton area is a popular spot for deployment, according to Eternal Reefs CEO George Frankel.

Since its inception four years ago, Eternal Reefs has memorialized the remains of more than 300 people, with close to half of them coming to rest on Bradenton-Sarasota area reefs.

Costs for the service range from $995 for a community memorial to $4,995 for up to four family members on the same reef.

The remains of one woman, her first and second husband and the second husband's first wife were cast into the concrete of a single reef ball weighing 3,500 to 4,000 pounds and measuring 6 feet across, Frankel said.

It's a win-win-win scenario for the company, its clients and local governments, Frankel said.

"They're getting the reef balls they would normally be paying for at no cost to the taxpayer," he said. "These become permanent living legacies and they enhance the local fisheries and the local economy."

Brian Dombrowski, a Sarasota-based underwater photographer with Sub Surface Media, has been assigned to photograph some of the area's memorial reef balls.

As a diver, the concept of an underwater memorial appeals to him on several levels, he said.

"I've been diving forever and I'm interested in being buried in a reef ball," Dombrowski said. "I've spent so much time photographing and videotaping the underwater environment. This is a type of photography that could raise income, not necessarily because it's the most gorgeous water but because it's a memorial."

Carol Fox

2005-11-01T11:46:00.000-05:00

Wanted to share this amazing Q&A with one of our special Eternal Reefs family members Carol and King Fox...

A Tribute to Life
with Carol and King Fox, parents of Jamie Fox

Tell us about Jamie, his personality and his passions.

Jamie was born on July 22, 1981. The day after he was born, he was rushed to the Johns Hopkins Neonatal ICU because the doctors thought he had a congenital heart defect. He was baptized immediately because they did not think he was going to live, hence, being named "King Sherman Fox, III." Thankfully, he did not have a heart defect just a severe infection and he came home to us 2 weeks later, happy and healthy. Since we already had two men in the family named King, we nicknamed him "Jamie," after my dad, James C. Kinser, Sr.

Jamie was always a quiet, shy boy and young man. He loved animals and was interested in nature and the environment ever since he attended grade school. When he was in 4th, 5th & 6th grade, he was selected to participate in the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth's Environmental classes that were held during the summer. So instead of spending his summer playing, Jamie attended environmental classes studying the environment and the Chesapeake Bay. He was always in awe of nature and how everything in the world relies on each other for survival. This is probably what sparked his interest in deciding to study Environmental Marine Science in college.

Jamie started high school at St. John's Literary Institution at Prospect Hall in Frederick and then attended Linganore High School his senior year. He was to start his senior year at Salisbury University when he died. He was an excellent student throughout his school years and made the honor roll frequently. In fact, he made the Dean's List at Salisbury during his last semester.

During his freshman year in high school, Jamie and I (Mom) traveled to Mexico with the school for 2 weeks. We traveled all over Mexico via a school bus, stopping at various villages and cities. We had a great time, however, Jamie was very upset at the plight of many of the Mexican people and the poverty that they had to endure. His heart always went out to people who were less fortunate. He was always a very compassionate person.

During high school, Jamie played lacrosse, football, baseball, and basketball. He was named MVP in lacrosse and many referees at his games would comment about what a great face-off man he was. Jamie was always very humble, however, and never thought he was as good as he actually was. He loved sports and played his entire four years of high school. He even had received a partial scholarship for lacrosse at Centinary College in Hackensack, NJ, but decided to attend Salisbury University since it was close to the beach!

When Jamie entered Salisbury, he thought he wanted to major in Environmental Marine Science. Soon after starting the chemistry course, however, he decided it was not for him! He then started searching for something that really sparked his interest and he found that spark in Philosophy.

Jamie was always an excellent writer and very deep thinker, so Philosophy suited him perfectly. He would spend endless hours each week writing papers on different subjects that neither of us quite understood! He was always so proud of his papers and would read them to us enthusiastically and with such passion that we knew he had very strong convictions and beliefs about nature, earth, life, God and how the universe and everything in it is connected.

Jamie was in a serious car accident in November of 2000 and suffered some serious injuries, one of which included having his four right fingers amputated. After recovering from his injuries, Jamie returned to Salisbury and decided to live at our small beach house in Fenwick Island. While the accident was terrible to live through, it made us realize how precious and fragile life is... any one of us can be gone in an instant and we should never take one moment for granted. Realizing this fact, we decided to spend as much time together as possible. So, for the next two years, we spent every weekend visiting Jamie. Granted, he worked most weekends so we didn't see him all the time, but just being able to spend some time with him was all that was important.

During the two years between his accident and his death, almost every weekend the three of us, along with some other family members, would end up having long, in-depth conversations with Jamie about life, the universe, God, etc. We were in awe of his knowledge and often wondered how he seemed so knowledgeable about so many things that most people don't understand. We, along with many others, learned a great deal from his words and his words have made us see a little clearer, what life on earth is all about. In fact, we used to tell him that it was if he was the parent and we were the children because we learned more from him than he learned from us! He definitely made us better people. We miss him and love him ... forever .. and . wait until we see him again.

Are there any organizations or charities that Jaime would want us to know about? If so, what are they?
Yes, definitely. As we said, Jamie loved animals, nature, and especially the ocean. He was working at the Worcester County Humane Society when he passed and had worked there for two years. Luckily, the Ocean City shelter is a "no-kill" shelter, meaning that all of the animals who find their way there are never euthanized. They stay there until they are adopted or if not adopted, they live their life at the shelter receiving unconditional love from all of the wonderful people who work there. Jamie loved working with the dogs especially, and the other employees said that Jamie would give each of them a hug and kiss when he arrived each day for work. After Jamie passed, we knew that he would rather have friends and family donate to the shelter versus sending flowers, so the Worcester County Humane Society was one of the charities that many family and friends donated to in Jamie's memory. It was Jamie's hope that eventually the shelter would raise enough money to build a bigger, more comfortable place for the poor homeless animals that call the shelter home. In fact, we are now raising our "grandchildren", Timber and Bugs. These are two wonderful dogs that Jamie had adopted himself from the shelter and lived with him at our beach house.

Another charity is The Surfrider Foundation. While the name doesn't sound much like a charity, the Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit, environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. It recognizes the planet's coasts are necessary and irreplaceable and is committed to preserving natural living and non-living diversity and ecological integrity of the coastal environment. Jamie really loved the ocean and would become quite upset at how people visiting Ocean City or any beach that we would visit, seemed to have such little respect for the ocean and the beach. He could not comprehend how people could just throw their trash in the sand, oblivious to the fact that once the tide came in, the trash would be taken out into the ocean, polluting such a valuable treasure. In fact, he would take plastic bags whenever he visited the beach or went jet skiing and would pick up whatever trash he could find and throw it away. He just felt like he had to do what he could to protect something so beautiful.

Last but not least, I would have to say The Ocean City Reef Foundation and The Reef Ball Foundation. While Jamie did not really know much about either of these charities, without them and Eternal Reefs, we would never have been able to fulfill Jamie's dream of giving back to the ocean. Both charities are doing a tremendous amount of work to develop and support artificial reefs not only off of the Maryland coast, but The Reef Ball Foundation has completed projects all over the world, working to restore destroyed and dying reef systems.

Why did you decide to memorialize Jaime in an Eternal Reef?
Well, as we said, Jamie absolutely loved the ocean. In 1999, after a close cousin passed away, the three of us were having a conversation about what we wanted done after our deaths. Jamie made the comment that he wanted to buried at sea. We told him that this was only possible for someone in the military, such as the Navy. He then said that we could find a way because he did not want to be buried and take up precious land.

So, when he died on 9/3/02 as the result of drowning, we knew that the closest thing to being buried at sea was to have him cremated and sprinkle his ashes over the ocean off the coast of Ocean City. We decided that we wanted to keep some of his ashes went onto the internet and did a search for "cremation urns." The first website on the list was Eternal Reefs. We looked at the name and thought that it didn't sound like a cremation urn company but decided to take a look at the website.

As soon as we started reading about Eternal Reefs and what they do, we immediately knew that "this was Jamie". Since he always talked of giving back to nature and the ocean, we have no doubt that he led us to this site. Also, Jamie had gone diving several months before his death off of Ocean City, and had commented how sad it was. He said there was not a lot of ocean life and what reefs he did see, they were not in very good shape. We thought what better way to fulfill Jamie's dream and also help the reefs and ocean off of the Maryland coast. We contacted Eternal Reefs and spoke with Don. He was very helpful and compassionate but said that they had not done any placements off of the Maryland Coast, so approval from the Town of Ocean City and also the Ocean City Reef Foundation would have to be obtained before placing Jamie's reef.

It took us 1 1/2 years for the approval process to be completed, but it was well worth the wait. We knew we had to do this for Jamie and also, it was so much more permanent a memorial than just scattering his ashes in the ocean. With an Eternal Reef, we actually had a place where we could visit by boat and either just visit for a while and say a prayer, or actually dive and see what wonderful sea life were calling Jamie's reef "home." What better tribute to a loved one than an actual living memorial. It is also gratifying to know that the work involved in the approval process paved the way for other families in the surrounding areas to also be able to choose this wonderful alternative to the traditional burial.

What advice can you give other families dealing with a loss?
While losing a loved one is always terrible, losing a child is the worst pain a parent can experience in their life. You truly feel like your heart has a huge hole that will never heal. It was especially difficult for us because Jamie was our only child. The thing that we think helped us the most was attending Compassionate Friends meetings. It is a wonderful organization for parents, who have lost a child(ren). In addition, grandparents and siblings are also welcome to attend the meetings. While it took us two years to be able to attend our first meeting, it has helped us tremendously just knowing that other parents are experiencing and feeling the same pain and emotions as you and we are not alone.

We suggest any family who has lost someone, whether a parent, sibling, child, etc., and they are having a hard time dealing with their grief, to find some type of support system, whether it be other family members or one of the many organizations who deal with losing a loved one. Granted, each person deals with grief differently and some may not be able to attend a meeting for months or, like us, even years.

The first couple of meetings are extremely hard, but at least try to attend 3 meetings before deciding whether it is something you can continue with. Eventually, you will find comfort in talking with other people who are dealing with the same grief as you and together, you can comfort each other. Also, right after losing a loved one, it may help some people to read books, etc. on loss and grief. I know Eternal Reefs has a wonderful grief library and I used it several times after Jamie's death.

Tell us about your experience memorializing Jamie in an Eternal Reef.
Our experience was emotional but also wonderful. Being able to fulfill Jamie's dream of giving back to the ocean was absolutely wonderful. We truly did not think that this would be possible and were so elated when we found Eternal Reef's website.

After receiving the approval to place Jamie's Eternal Reef off of Ocean City, MD, we traveled to Norfolk, VA for the reef casting. It was an emotional day, not only because you are there with other families who have lost a loved one, but many of us there were viewing the cremation remains for the first time, which is an emotional experience. Everyone associated with the casting, i.e., Don from Eternal Reefs, the employees from The Reef Ball Foundation and the concrete company were extremely compassionate and professional. They went out of their way to ensure that the casting process was done in a respectful manner, which was very much appreciated. While it was emotional, it was wonderful to see Jamie's reef in the mold and completed. It was especially meaningful that the loved ones are able to put their hand prints in the casting, after it was poured...a final touch to your loved one.

After Jamie's reef had cured, it was brought from Norfolk to Ocean City, MD. The day before the placement, we invited our family and friends to visit the reef and decorate it. Don provided everyone with chalk to write messages to Jamie and decorate his reef and also had supplies so we could do rubbings of his memorial plaque, which was embedded in his reef. This was also a very emotional time but it brought back many good memories as family and friends wrote messages, funny sayings or remembered something special about Jamie.

The next day, family and friends boarded a charter boat and proceeded out to the reef placement site. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Since we were able to do a private placement, we played a CD that we had made which contained songs that reminded us of Jamie and his thoughts on life, and also songs that expressed our feelings about him. Everyone present commented that it was THE most beautiful ceremony they had ever attended. After placing the model reef that we had decorated with flowers, we all watched as The Ocean City Reef Foundation lowered Jamie's Eternal Reef to its final resting place. The boat's horn sounded 3 times and Don read John F. Kennedy's speech, "The Sea," which brought tears to everyone's eyes. After Jamie's reef was lowered, everyone tossed flowers into the ocean in honor and remembrance of Jamie. Everyone then toasted Jamie's life with champagne. The ride back to the dock was quiet with everyone reflecting on Jamie's life and listening to the music.

It was a truly amazing experience and we are so grateful to Eternal Reefs and The Ocean City Reef Foundation for helping us make Jamie's dream come true. We also hope that other families will consider a memorial reef. As far as we are concerned, it is THE best alternative to a conventional burial. Not only are you creating a living memorial to your loved one, you are giving something back to nature and the ocean that will last for hundreds of years. No other burial alternative can say this. It truly was an amazing experience and we look forward to diving in the next month or so and seeing for ourselves what sea life calls Jamie's Eternal Reef "home".

Jamie Fox
July 22, 1981 - September 3, 2002
Visit Jamie's site
http://www.mem.com/display/biography.asp?ID=166061

Funeral Wire...

2005-10-17T21:57:00.000-04:00

This is a great site for up to date information about the funeral industry. Check it out when you get some time: www.funeralwire.com.

Sunset in the islands of the blessed

2005-10-17T21:55:00.000-04:00

The Sunday Paper
10/16/05 - The modern burial at sea

By Susan Kay Asher

Deep-sea diver Tim Terry used to visit the fishes and sea creatures twice a month for more than a decade until he died unexpectedly in 2003. Now he’s with them every day.

His remains were mixed inside a man-made 400-pound reef and buried 45 feet below the ocean’s surface off the coast of Florida, near Sarasota.

Terry’s family knew he wanted to be cremated, but when his sister, Becki Fisher, was searching the Internet for the right container for his ashes, she saw something that would suit him even better: an opportunity to become part of a living reef through an Atlanta-based burial reef company, Eternal Reefs, Inc.

“It brought our family closer because we knew it was something that Tim would have loved,” she says. “He’s resting in a place where he felt most at peace in his life.”

Eternal Reefs, Inc. has buried more than 350 people from around the country in 400- to 4,000-pound reef balls, which themselves become living organisms, sprouting coral and attracting other sea creatures. The balls are expected to last 500 years, and families are provided exact Global Positioning System coordinates so they can visit the “Memorial Reef” site by boat to fish or dive.

Eternal Reefs founder, Don Brawley, began diving off the Florida Keys in the late 1980s with his UGA college roommate, Todd Barber. They were concerned about the way that divers and pollutants diminish reefs. So they developed an environmentally friendly concrete formula for reef balls that would replicate the natural marine environment that supports coral and the microorganisms that live on it. In 1990, they began the Reef Ball Development Group and the Reef Ball Foundation that, so far, have placed more than 600,000 reef balls on the ocean floor, becoming the standard for coral restoration and habitat development.

VOICES FROM BEYOND:

"I can think of nothing better than having all that action going on around me all the time after I am gone—just make sure that the location has lots of red snapper and grouper."—Carleton Glen Palmer, now buried at sea in an artificial reef ball

One evening Brawley was speaking with his father-in-law, Carleton Glen Palmer, who said he’d like to be buried at sea in one of the artificial reef balls. As Carleton put it, "I can think of nothing better than having all that action going on around me all the time after I am gone—just make sure that the location has lots of red snapper and grouper." Shortly after Carleton made this request, he passed away. Brawley’s first reef burial was for his father-in-law in 1998. That reef ball is now teeming with sea life.

Brawley says Eternal Reefs invites family and friends to participate in the casting of the reef ball itself, placing their handprints and writing their names with their fingers in the wet concrete molding as tribute. In place of a headstone, a bronze plaque embedded in the concrete memorializes the dead. When the casting fully cures, in about four weeks, a site dedication ceremony is held onsite—often with an unplanned entourage of dolphins.

Terry’s sister, who lives in Gainesville along with her parents and two brothers rode on a boat one sunny, breezy July afternoon to watch Terry’s reef be placed in the water. They brought pictures of Terry—one of him with a lobster he caught—and threw flowers into the ocean where the reef ball was to be placed. Brawley read from a speech given by former President John F. Kennedy about “being tied to the ocean” and “going back from whence we came.”

The cost of a reef burial ranges from $1,000 to $5,000, which does not include the actual cremation. People may be buried in a single reef ball, or may be buried in a community reef with loved ones. Ashes are kept separately until all members to be buried have died. And, people can bury their pets in a memorial reef as part of the “Pearls are for Pets” program.

“Rather than passing an urn down to future generations, or taking space in a cemetery,” he says. “This memorial is a true living legacy.”

Terry’s family expected the ceremony to be sad, but it wasn’t.

“We felt like we were giving something back to Tim and the sea,” says Fisher. “He was happiest when he was diving. Sea life is what he loved most.”

Brawley says has buried people of all ages in Eternal Reefs, but there have been a disproportionate number of parents burying their children. Parents tell him since their children were unable to live their lives to completion, they want them surrounded by life.

“It’s not so much that people are gone,” says Brawley. “It’s more like ‘look what they’re doing now.’”

You're not dead -- you're life-impaired

2005-10-09T15:42:00.000-04:00

You're not dead -- you're life-impaired

Friday, October 07, 2005
By Peter Leo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

You'll sleep with the fishes

Looking for something interesting to do with your body after death, something that will enrich the planet before global warming really heats up and we all get cremated? Consider Eternal Reefs. For a modest fee, you or the deceased in your life can help restore some of the estimated 30,000 square miles of dead reefs around the world. This is no joke. Eternal Reefs' founder, Don Brawley of Decatur, Ga., is a reef-builder by trade. Six years ago, his father-in-law asked him to do a favor: When I die, he said, put my remains mixed into a reef ball, sunk into the water. Father-in-law figured it was better to be in the sea, surrounded by coral and fish, color and action, than to be planted in a field with a bunch of stiffs going nowhere. A few months later, when the man died, Mr. Brawley kept the promise. And a new company was born. He stresses that being part of an artificial reef is more environmentally useful than simply sprinkling ashes in the sea. The artificial reef is made from pollutant-free concrete mixed with the cremated remains and costs from $1,500 to $5,000. Eternal Reefs has permission to place artificial reefs in the Atlantic, off South Carolina and Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

fun facts

2005-10-04T21:42:00.000-04:00

Here are some fun facts about Eternal Reefs....

The smallest Eternal Reefs Memorial Reef is two feet high and three feet wide and weighs 400 pounds. The largest is four feet high and six feet wide and weights 4,000 pounds.

Eternal Reefs inaugurated the first community reef in the United States on October 3, 2001 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Eternal Reefs Memorial Reefs are expected to live 500 years

The largest “green memorial” in the United States is located in Sarasota, Florida where over 100 Eternal Reefs Memorial Reefs are dedicated.

Memorial Reefs can go only in properly permitted locations that are approved by the Federal, State, and local governments. Eternal Reefs work with the families, and the state and local agencies to find the area of most need for the memorial reef.

How much do Memorial Reefs cost? The price ranges from $4,995 for an Atlantis memorial reef ball to $995 for a community reef memorial.

Cremation is growing dramatically in the United States, and by 2010, the procedure may be included in 40 percent of funerals, according to the Cremation Association of North America. An astonishing 45 percent of families that have chosen cremation still have the remains at home sitting on a shelf or in a closet.

Don Brawley, founder, Eternal Reefs Inc., was instrumental in designing the "Reef Ball" artificial reef system, used world wide to replenish dwindling natural reef barriers.

Meet Chuck...

2005-10-04T19:23:00.000-04:00

We would like to welcome Chuck Kizina to the Eternal Reefs family!

In his new role as COO, Chuck will assume responsibility for all operational functions including castings and placements and all related events such as developing new memorial reef locations. Chuck will also be key in managing funeral industry relationships.

Prior to joining Eternal Reefs, Kizina spent over 10 years as Vice-President, Compliance of Alderwoods Group, Inc. based in Cincinnati, OH. The Alderwoods Group, formerly The Loewen Group, is the funeral industry’s second largest consolidator and operator with over 780 funeral homes, cemeteries and combination funeral home and cemetery facilities.

At Alderwoods Group, Kizina was responsible for the management and assessment of the company’s environmental liabilities, internal audit and compliance audit functions, developing policies and procedures as well as chairperson of the Corporate Compliance Committee. Prior to joining Alderwoods Group, Kizina served as an environmental project engineer for Gould Electronics, Inc. headquartered in Eastlake, Ohio. He also has extensive experience in training crematory operators and is an avid scuba diver and instructor.

Welcome Aboard Chuck!

Welcome to our blog!

2005-10-04T19:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Eternal Reefs blog! You will find helpful information about environmentally friendly memorial options, green burial, family resources, and special and inspiring stories from our families.