Ohio Funeral Directors Association Convention - Columbus, OH

To us who work on this tour everyday is special, sharing this content with others is a very rewarding job. However when we get the opportunity to be a highlighted portion of an event then those are the special times. Not to say that our latest stop wasn't without it difficulties. We got an entirely new experience, parking the exhibit inside of a building!

As guests of the Ohio Funeral Directors Convention in Columbus, OH we parked the truck right inside the exhibit floor. As an added bonus for the convention attendees, touring our exhibit was worth an additional CEU credit.

One of our full time sponsors, Legacy.com, was on hand to talk about some of their new products and to celebrate their recent front page article in USA Today.

The Ohio area Funeral Directors made a wonderful audience and i do believe that soon you will be here about us going back to visit a few of them.

I want to extend a special thank you to Batesville Casket Company for bringing us to the convention.

International Museum Day - Sandusky, OH

We were excited to be invited to take part in a very unique community celebration, nine different Sandusky area museums joined together to offer a fun day for the area. Each location has activities, giveaways and transportation available. Our spot was parking was right at the marina in the lot of the Sandusky Maritime Museum.
The day was full of visitors, 525 to be exact. This outgoing and active community will be a highlight for the rest of the tour.

Michigan Funeal Directors Association - Mt. Pleasant, MI

Our next stop was in Mt. Pleasant Michigan for the Michigan Funeral Director's Convention. We were set up in the parking lot of the Soaring Eagle Casino where the event took place. We were open for 3 days and had a good turn out. About half of our visitors were part of the convention and the other half were curious casino goers. It was great to meet so many of Michigan's funeral directors. I hope that we will have a chance to visit them in their hometowns in the near future.

Reflections Sponsor Makes USA Today Front Page

Our sponsor Legacy.com had a wonderful article published on the FRONT PAGE of USA Today. Check it out!

McLean County Museum of History - Bloomington, IL

Our next stop was in Bloomington Illinois which coincided with with the anniversary of Lincoln's funeral train stop in 1865. We were located at the beautiful McLean County Museum of History. It was the old court house and several floors of really well done exhibits. Abigail made her debut on the lecture circuit and gave a presentation on the Lincoln Funeral Train. My opinion be biased but she did a great job!

ABFSE Conference- Chatham, IL

We moved on to Illinois and set up at the Staab-Polk Funeral Home of Chatham. Paula Staab-Polk was hosting an event as part of the annual American Board of Funeral Service Education convention. More than one hundred teachers and adminstrators representing mortuary schools from across the United States came in by charter buses and toured our exhibit as well as Paula's facility. The group had lunch and listened to several presentations. One of which was by our own boss Harry Kurtz, joined by Frank Lorbach about our exhibit. It was a very interesting group of people and I hope we get a chance to bring our exhibit to many of their schools.



We also had a student group from the local middle school who were taking a grief class come and tour the exhibit. A classmate of theirs had died earlier that year and Paula was meeting with them periodically. They were very curious about the exhibit and asked a lot of questions.

LeHigh Valley Heritage Museum; Allentown, PA

After our show in Salem, I traded Abigail and Frank in for another MRA driver, Brian Schaefer, and we team drove the 2000 plus miles back to Detroit in about two days. After I got some well deserved rest, put Abigail back in the truck and we cruised on down to Allentown a couple of days later. It was quite a haul, but we had good weather and it was nice trip. I enjoyed my time with Bryan who has quite a few years of experience in this business. It was good to talk with him and get an other's perspective on operating these unique tours.


Our event in Allentown PA was hosted by the Lehigh Valley Heritage Center.
The event partially were sponsored by Rob-Win Press, a local printing company that specializes in materials for the funeral industry.


We were fortunate to have several school groups come through our exhibit and they really seemed to enjoy it. One of the schools was Roberto Clemente Charter School that it right next to the Museum. Many of the students come back after school with friends to share their experience.




After a weekend of perfect weather one would find it hard to believe that the event could get much better.

Monday was a busy day as we preparing for local Pennsylvania area Funeral Directors who were attending a continuing education class hosted by Rob-Win. We were also able to offer the attendees an additional credit for coming to our exhibit, this is something we are often able to do. The featured speaker was Nancy Bollman from Texas.

Pictured here are the current Mortuary Sciences students attending North Hampton Community College in Bethlehem, PA.

Lincoln Funeral Program Premier

With assistance from the Lehigh Valley Historical Society of Allentown, PA, the Reflections staff will be presenting an educational program on the Lincoln Funeral Train. This multimedia program of Abraham's final journey will premier at the McLean County Museum of History on Sunday, May 3rd at 1:00 PM. Please join us for this and other presentations.