When people ask me how I came up with this idea
I asked God to help me make funerals free. He told me to “crowd-fund land and dig our own graves, like our ancestors taught us.”
“I’m Cheri Wallace. I volunteered for this fun on a shoestring budget, without a degree in websites, nonprofits, foundations, grant writing, petition writing, or marketing, as a self-described introvert in a tiny town so small it’s named Littleton. But my voice has influenced thousands of people to reclaim their death rites and make their future funerals free.
My only qualification to be here was that I asked God, and God answered. So I took courses to learn home funerals and private-land burials and I studied laws, legislation and green funerals.
I realized there are no options for the poor and why are we settling for $15,000 funerals or cremation as our only options? I decided to try and fix this broken system.
I created the perfect cemetery society and wrote nine-point petition to fix the cost of dying everything from no charge death certificates to a free obituary database and a $1000 tax credit for having a “green” funeral plan. You can sign my Death Rites Petition here: https://letsbetrees.org/9-point-petition-to-reclaim-our-death-rites/
My goal is to never see another funeral fundraiser.
If you follow me Rest in peace can be FREE.
We do this in honor of my grandmother Margaret Ellen Wallace (RIP). Tragically in 1950, Grandma was pregnant with her thirteenth child when Grandpa died. With nothing left to pay for the funeral, the director took the family truck — a 1947 Ford — leaving my Grandma and 13 fatherless children walking.
This is the true story of The Widow’s Cry, such as Luke 18 “Grant me justice against my adversary.”
It is the honor of my life to fix this broken system, because Rest in peace is a God given right that should not cripple our lives. Rest in peace John and Margaret Ellen Wallace.
I was told from a child I would carry my Grandma’s legacy. I didnt understand until now. I will not rest until there is justice.
Our Treasurer is my dear friend Kim Cowan. She’s been our biggest supporter and a true godsend — I used her lake house as my refuge while I learned not to flinch at rebuffs from the industry and skeptics, while gathering our nonprofit designation, building a website, starting petitions, collecting facts and signatures, bringing on seven interns, winning two major grants, and getting crypto certified. Behind a locked gate in a quiet cove among abundant wildlife, my refuge during COVID could not have been more perfect.
Kim became a board member because she has also seen first hand what the cost of funerals do to families and she believes ending funeral poverty and the pollution is good for humanity. She spent her life in Virginia Beach, as a barber, a dive instructor, and the last twenty years in radiology for Sentara.
Shout out to Kim for twenty years of service, straight through COVID.
Aaron Sizemore is one of my best friends and our Secretary. He is a lifelong farmer with a specialty in legislation and the health benefits of plant-based medicine. He’s traveled the world meeting other farmers and studied with influential voices shaping policy for the industry.
Aaron is leading our effort to ask Who Wants to Be a Saint? If you’d like to be a saint to your community by donating land or including us in your estate plan, please reach out using the form below.
Michael Savage, known as SirTony, is a dear friend like family. He’s an award-winning actor and filmmaker — General Hospital’s Vince, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, an honorary Tony as a Juilliard alumnus. He founded The Total Workshop for Acting in 1998 and pioneered the short audition film. His one-act play The Magic Words is a 3 person, 12 minute children screen play, its simply shocking and built to teach manners and gratitude, and it’s for sale on our store page as a fundraiser.
Michael is leading our effort to record the parting wisdom of our people. This effort, called The River of Life, gives last words of wisdom to future generations. Message Michael below.
My dear Gabriella graduated from the University of Houston-Clearlake with a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology, but she’s built a career doing everything but that — grant writing, courtroom transcription, and helps blind and low-vision people using smart glasses that translate what they see into words in real time. She enjoys nature and has always said she wants to become a mushroom when she grows up — and now she’s making that literal.
Gabriella is leading our effort to create a simple and affordable mushroom-infused burial shroud. Interested? Message Gabriella below.
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