Wednesday 1 June 2022 04:46 AM PICTURED: Customized caskets with basketballs, musical notes, Pokemon and ... trends now
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
