Rotarians work in many ways in their own communities, helping, supporting, and educating. There are as many ways to help as there are Clubs. The Urjala Rotary Club has various service projects, one of which is the funeral service. The service is important, because there are not always enough own bearers for funeral among one’s own family.
In Urjala, the club has been implementing this project for more than 20 years. The partner is the local funeral office, which will contact the Rotarians if relatives need support. The service can be carrying a coffin to the church before the actual blessing and delivering it back to the deceased’s room (in the case of cremation) or carrying the coffin to the church with escorts and lowering the coffin into the grave. Both cases have existed pretty even.
As the service is important for both relatives and the Club, it is a chargeable service, ie. the Club always charges 30 € / plaintiff, ie. a maximum of 180 € per burial. In this way, the club receives the necessary funds for the development of its activities and, above all, it helps in a low-cost manner.
In previous years, there have been a few carryings per year, and even years without any. But 2020 has been quite lively, perhaps due to the corona. Since April, club president Hannu Hirvonen has been involved in 11 burials, which has probably been a record number.
The problem this year has been that there are not enough applicants to get plaintiffs, because there have been so many carryings (eg. 5 carryings within the six autumn weeks). Of course, the age of the members of the club has already contributed to the participation. The carryings have been taken care of by 6 – 8 members.
However, as the service is clearly very necessary, and the results open a discussion on a possible cooperation with the local Lions of Urjala. This would be done together for the benefit of their own community.
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