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| Steven Packard (middle), with his brothers Kyle (left) and Justin, stands with the caskets he made for Garden of Innocence as part of his Eagle Scout project. Charlie Neuman | Union-Tribune |
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The body of a newborn was discovered in November on a conveyor belt at the EDCO Recycling Center in Escondido. Because the center receives trash from a large portion of Southern California, it's unlikely that the baby's parents will ever be known.
A funeral for the child will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley. He will be the 99th baby buried by Garden of Innocence, a Vista nonprofit that provides dignified funerals for abandoned and unidentified children who have died in San Diego County.
Garden of Innocence named the baby Thomas after his body was discovered.
"It hasn't changed," said Elissa Davey, the nonprofit's founder and vice president. "It doesn't get any easier. When I go get the baby (from the morgue), I'm picking up a baby who has never been picked up and wrapped in a blanket, who has never gotten a name. You get affected because you're seeing them. Could they have been a doctor, lawyer or Indian chief? You never know what could have happened if the child lived."
Davey started the organization after learning that the bodies of unclaimed children are cremated or interred in unmarked graves at Mt. Hope Cemetery in San Diego.
Davey learned that the county public administrator and public guardian's office has the authority to turn over an unclaimed child's body to someone who agrees to provide a dignified resting place. Davey said she fashioned Garden of Innocence after organizations around the country that do similar work. "I thought, why can't we have that in San Diego?" Davey said. "So we did it because these children deserve it. Otherwise they don't have any recognition that they were here. They'd get thrown in with the indigent program, with drunks and drug users. That's not fair. The babies didn't make that choice. They deserve so much better."
Davey's group has buried every abandoned or unidentified child whose case was handled by the county administrator and public guardian's office since 1999. Last week, the nonprofit was notified of the 100th baby, Davey said.
An abandoned child is defined as one who dies in a hospital and is unclaimed by a parent or other responsible family member. Hospitals must conduct a 30-day search for the parents before a child is deemed abandoned.
An unidentified deceased child is defined as one who is discovered away from a hospital and no parent or responsible family member can be identified. An investigation into the death could last up to a year before the body is released.
Garden of Innocence provides a full ceremony, including an officiant, a Knights of Columbus color guard, doves released to flight and a poem written for the child as well as toy and blanket placed in the casket, Davey said. Each funeral costs $380, which is paid through donations.
"People that we know who give us donations, we don't have a way to thank them," she said. "So we let them name the child. Sometimes it gives them closure for other issues in their lives."
Volunteers are key to the operation, Davey said, and they are mostly people who are touched by the organization's work or by a visit to its Web site.
Steven Packard, a 16-year-old Boy Scout from San Marcos, is building 11 caskets for the nonprofit as part of his Eagle Scout project. They should be completed by the end of the month.
Packard was moved when he was told about the organization after his sister, Emily, died at 4 months of age.
"I did it for my sister, really," Packard said. "I was 10, and the only thing I remember about her is going to her funeral. I felt I could touch 11 babies and help them on their way to heaven. They're babies that couldn't have burials. Now they can."
Delma Gomez, president of the Relief Society of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said her group was deeply moved when it built 10 caskets for Garden of Innocence and installed linings in others.
"As sisters, mothers, daughters and grandmothers, a baby is such a symbol of hope and love," said Gomez, whose organization serves San Marcos and Escondido. "We thought the project might be too grim for some young mothers and that they wouldn't want to participate. But young mothers have been our biggest supporters, perhaps because they felt so blessed to have a healthy child."
Davey collects the children's remains from morgues and takes them to mortuaries that donate their services. The act reminds her of why she still does it.
"They're human babies yet they usually come in a plastic bag with a tie, sometimes shoved in a cardboard box," Davey said. "They were being pushed to the wayside. These are human beings."
Reach reporter Steven Mihailovich at (760) 752-6753.
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