NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A unique program to make sure everyone in Nashville is granted a final dignity is marking one year of service.
Pastor Jay Voorhees of City Road Chapel United Methodists Church started the "Call The Name" project in November 2021 at Hills of Calvary Memorial Park.
Voorhees said he had long been aware of Metro Social Services' Indigent Burial Program — a service that offers a free, modest plot for those who have died without any resources and without any friends or family to claim them. The city officially calls them "abandoned."
But when Voorhees attended an indigent burial last year, he noticed there was no one there to say anything about the person being buried.
So Voorhees started the Call The Name program with a small group of pastors to make sure that someone was there to say a kind word or nondenominational thought and to speak the name of the person being laid to rest.
November marks one year of burials the program has attended. The program has now been present at 105 burials, and called out 105 names, expanding to more than 60 volunteers.
"For others in the community to just say, 'Hey we think we need to be there too,' has really blessed me," Voorhees said.
