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Customized caskets bearing images of dinosaurs, llamas, slime, the TikTok logo, basketballs, musical notes and pickles have been delivered to Uvalde, as the tragic task of burying the dead from last week’s school shooting begins.
The coffins have been made by a Texas businessman, Trey Ganem, whose company Soul Shine Industries specializes in personalized caskets.
Ganem normally charges $3,400 for the caskets, but has donated them to the families of the 19 children and two teachers murdered at Robb Elementary School on May 24.
He was asked to make 18 of the 19 caskets for the children, and one of the two adult coffins.
Members of the Soul Shine Industries team are seen making a special casket for a victim of the Uvalde massacre, with the TikTok logo and basketballs
Trey and Bill Ganem and their team of volunteers worked around the clock to get the caskets ready
One of the caskets appeared to have yellow Pokemon writing on the side
A blue and a pink casket, made by Ganem’s team, are pictured awaiting delivery to Uvalde
A casket featuring musical notes and theatre masks is seen in Ganem’s warehouse, ready for delivery to Uvalde
Trey Ganem, 50, was initially contacted by the Texas Funeral Directors’ Association
Ganem, 50, told BuzzFeed that he was contacted initially by someone at the Texas Funeral Directors’ Association, asking for help. The death toll was unclear, but it was apparent that there had been a horrific tragedy.
‘I think there were 17 at the time that he knew of, and he wanted to know if I would be able to help out and make sure that all these kids have, you know, some personalization,’ said Ganem.
His company, based in Edna, Texas, does not keep a large stockpile of small caskets, and so he had to order them from a Georgia-based company.
Ganem told BuzzFeed that the manufacturer worked for 20 hours straight to get the orders out on time, and then Ganem’s friend Bubba Hoffman hired a Texas trucking company to make the 26-hour trip from Texas to Georgia, to collect the caskets, and then back to Texas.
The delivery arrived at 2am on Friday, and Ganem and his son Billy Ganem worked nonstop, getting only a couple of hours of sleep – with the help of around a dozen people, who volunteered to help – some driving to their workshop from Corpus Christi, 100 miles away.
‘We’re here to try to make a hard time a little easier,’ said Billy Ganem, 25.
Trey Ganem (right) enlisted a team to help make the 19 coffins for the victims
‘There’s nothing we can really ever do to make it easier, but that’s our goal: to help the families start their grieving and their healing and just try to make something special for them.’
By Saturday, Ganem’s crew began making the first 220 mile trip to Uvalde, to begin the delivery.
‘It has been an extremely emotional roller coaster for me,’ Ganem said.
‘I don’t even know if you can hear my voice.
‘I haven’t hollered at all, but I’m losing my voice, for whatever reason.’
Eliahana Torres’s mother said she thought about all the things her 10-year-old daughter loved: llamas, TikTok’s logo, and a splash of neon yellow slime, which also symbolized her passion for softball.
‘She would tell me that she needed glue for school because she had a big ole project to do, and the glue would be to make slime,’ said Sandra Torres, her mother.
‘She drove us crazy with the TikTok.’
Ganem said the requests had been touching, and amusing.
‘There was one that wanted dinosaurs, with flashlights, holding a pickle,’ he said.
On Tuesday the first funeral was held, as the reeling, close-knit community braces itself for 20 further farewells.
Amerie Garza had just been named to the honor roll when she was murdered. On Tuesday her funeral service was held in Uvalde
Amerie Jo Garza, 10, was laid to rest on Tuesday afternoon following a Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic church, a 114-year-old church about a mile from the elementary school where she was murdered.
Her stepfather, Angel Garza, a medic, dashed to the school on hearing the news of the active shooter, and saw a 10-year-old girl covered in blood. He asked what had happened, and was told it was not her blood but that of her best friend Amerie – his daughter.
Amerie had called 911, it later emerged, and the gunman, on hearing her call, shot her.
‘I just want people to know she died trying to save her classmates,’ her stepfather said. ‘She just wanted to save everyone.’
Pallbearers are seen lifting the casket of Amerie outside the Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Tuesday
Amerie’s funeral was the first of 11 to take place in Uvalde this week
Angel Garza, pictured with Amerie in an undated photo, told CNN on Wednesday: ‘How do you look at this girl and shoot her? Oh, my baby. How do you shoot my baby?’
Angel Garza wept outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, as he told Anderson Cooper of the horrifying moment he found out his stepdaughter was dead – while trying to provide medical assistance to a 10-year-old covered in the girl’s blood
On Friday, Amerie was posthumously awarded the Bronze Cross by the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, her grandmother, Berlinda Arreola, said.
The national award is reserved for Girl Scouts who show ‘extraordinary heroism’ or risk their lives to save another’s.
Many of the mourners who packed into the church on Tuesday were dressed in lilac and lavender – the favorite colors of a little girl who dreamed of growing up to be an art teacher.
The church was decorated with pots of lavender, and her casket was gray with lilac.
‘Amerie Jo Garza was a kind, caring, blunt, loving, sweet, sassy and of course funny little diva who ‘hated dresses’ but nonetheless; she truly had a heart of gold,’ her family said.
Garza described Amerie as ‘the sweetest little girl’ who was a good student and always well-behaved for her family.
A young girl is seen arriving for Amerie’s funeral with a drawing done in her honor
The tribute to Amerie reads: ‘Forever gone but never forgotten’
Mourners arrive at the church ahead of Amerie’s funeral on Tuesday
Many of those who arrived at the church were wearing lilac – Amerie’s favorite color
Some of those attending wore t-shirts in her favorite color, made in tribute to the 10-year-old
Amerie, who had just celebrated her tenth birthday, used her new cell phone to call 911 during the massacre but was shot dead while sitting next to her best friend
Her mother, Kimberly Garcia, took to Facebook to address the family’s loss, saying it is incomprehensible
‘I just want to know what she did to be a victim,’ he said the day after her death.
‘She was so sweet… she was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong.
‘She listened to her mom and dad, she always brushed her teeth, she was creative, she made things for us, she never got in trouble in school.’
After the Mass, Amerie’s procession continued to Hillcrest Memorial cemetery.
A few hundred had gathered for a short burial ceremony: when it was over, her family released white dove-shaped balloons into the wind.
Amerie loved pizza, Chick-fil-A and swimming, her family said.
She kissed her three-year-old brother, Zayne, every morning before she left for school. Last year, she was given the school’s ‘Heart of Gold’ award — and this year, she made honor roll.
The day after her death, her mother, Kimberly Garcia, posted a picture of Amerie holding up a certificate in recognition of joining the A-B honor roll.
‘You did not deserve this my sweet baby girl,’ her mother wrote. ‘Mommy needs you, Amerie I can’t do this life without you.’
This week alone there will be 11 funerals.
On Tuesday evening, the funeral of 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez will be held.
‘She loved animals,’ her cousin, Destiny Esquivel, told CNN’s Adrienne Broaddus on Monday.
Maite wanted to be a marine biologist.
‘She was determined. She was smart. She was going to be someone.’
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