Burial plot at St. Charles Borromeo can hold 70 small caskets
St. Charles Borromeo School hosted a unique 5K walk/run that raised thousands of dollars for a burial plot that will be used to ensure that unclaimed or aborted babies receive a proper burial.
The plot, which costs around $4,000, will be able to hold up to 70 small caskets, according to event spokesman Steven Bradley.
The Jack Iko McGuire 5K took place on the levee in front of the school on Saturday with 150 participants. After the run, a party was held on the front lawn of the campus where food and drinks were served. Bradley said that all food and drinks at the party were donated.
The burial plot will be used by New Orleans Friends for Life, an organization that retrieves unclaimed or aborted babies for burial. Lise Naccari founded the organization after hearing the story of a young girl who went in for an abortion but delivered a dead baby.
“She was six months pregnant and they actually started the abortion procedure but then sent her home,” Naccari said. “It was just a terrible, horrific story.”
While Naccari was at a board meeting, the group was asked if anyone could help the mother bury the child.
“I hopped out of my chair,” she said. “This work just fell into my lap and I feel it was an act of God. We had a beautiful ceremony and the mother and baby’s father both came.”
Since that burial in 2003, Naccari has helped bury 15 other babies. That includes babies who have been thrown away in the trash, found in the sewer and even discovered in the plumbing.
The organization has helped bury twins and even full-term babies.
Naccari said that even though New Orleans Friends for Life is not well known, she was contacted directly to help bury each of the 15 babies.
“We really don’t go out seeking it and it all falls in our lap,” she said.
But Naccari hopes to draw more attention to her cause by purchasing an area where all the babies can be buried together. She plans to call the small cemetery the Garden of Hope. For now though, she says plots like the one at St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery will be a huge help.
“It is definitely very important,” she said. “Purchasing the burial plot is the main cost associated with our burials.”
If the babies are not buried, Naccari said they are stored in freezers at both the hospital and the coroner’s office. After a certain amount of time passes, the babies are buried in body bags in a mass grave in a potter’s field.
While Naccari and her organization help bury unclaimed or aborted babies, she also wants to raise awareness of the Safe Haven law. If a mother is not ready to take care of a newborn baby, Louisiana’s Safe Haven law offers parents a safe, legal option.
Parents who are unable to care for a child less than 31 days old can bring the newborn to an emergency facility. By leaving the baby in the care of an employee at a Safe Haven facility, parents can give up custody of a baby with no questions asked.
“There is not a lot of information out there about the Safe Haven law,” Naccari said. “Before Katrina, there were more funds designated to the program and the Safe Haven law had more publicity.”
The organizers of the St. Charles Borromeo fundraiser can relate to just how delicate the life of a child is. Michelle Detillier lost her daughter Celeste, who was stillborn, in 2002. Danielle Romaguera lost her daughter Gabrielle in 2003 to whooping cough. The event was named for the stillborn baby of one of the school’s first grade teachers.
“Witnessing their personal involvement and commitment to the Jack Iko McGuire Memorial was the most inspiring aspect that I will always remember from this experience,” Bradley said. “Yes, the weather was great and the food was fantastic and everyone had a great time, but Michelle and Danielle’s personal commitment towards raising money for a moral cause and honoring their own children and the lives of other children such as Jack Iko McGuire through their personal labor and sacrifice, was the most significant aspect of the event.”
To contact New Orleans Friends for Life or make a tax-deductible donation to their cause, contact Naccari at (504)202-3111 or send checks to P.O. Box 640932, Kenner, LA 70064 .
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