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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It was all a bit mind-blowing to the shop class kids – all those important folks, the cameras and reporters and the entire student body at Valley High School there to celebrate their project on death and dignity and well-sanded wood.

The students – three classes of 30 – had worked together this semester to build wooden urns, beautiful, sacred boxes crafted of poplar and sanded to a satiny finish for military veterans who would not otherwise be honored with such fine, final resting places.

The urns were distributed through Bernalillo County’s Forgotten Heroes Burial Program in conjunction with the New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services and Daniels Family Funeral Services.

Nine of the urns were on display at the front of the Valley gym last week for a school assembly, which attracted military dignitaries such as New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services Secretary Jack Fox and Bernalillo County honchos like Sheriff Manuel Gonzales, Clerk Linda Stover and Commissioner Debbie O’Malley.

“We came to this project with a purpose, and I’m proud of how it has all turned out,” Jose Contreras, 16, said, watching in awe as the gym filled. “But it’s kind of overwhelming to see this kind of response to what we have done.”

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That these kids were feted in a fashion typically reserved for football teams and homecoming courts is even beyond what their shop teacher had hoped for.

“My dream and my goal was to show these kids that they are valid members of the community who can do great things with their personal powers,” said Gino Perez, in his first year at Valley. “They’re just blown away with how what they’ve done matters so much.”

It does.

Since 2012, Bernalillo County has respectfully laid to rest those who have died within the county’s boundaries who no one came to claim, to pay their respects or to pay for a funeral. The Unclaimed Indigent Cremation Program, administered by the Bernalillo County General Services Division, is the first program of its kind in New Mexico and likely in the nation.

Daniels cremates the remains and stores them for the requisite two years, then buries the boxes in which they are stored en masse in caskets during a multi-denominational ceremony.

The two-year cutoff to claim remains was last Friday.

As of this week, 68 souls are scheduled to be buried Thursday at Fairview Memorial Park, said Larry Gallegos, county communication services specialist.

Among the dead listed are three babies.

Indigent or unclaimed veterans are afforded a special send-off with military honors and burial at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. This year’s burial is Oct. 4.

Shop teacher Perez, a Navy veteran, said it was a video from one of those military services that inspired the idea of having his students make wooden urns for the forgotten vets.

“I saw that these veterans were being buried in black cardboard or plastic boxes, and me being a veteran I took offense to that,” he said. “They fought for this country and deserved better.”

Perez said he was directed to the Bernalillo County program and the project began. He was teaching shop then at Academy of Trades and Technology, a struggling charter school that shut down last year. By the time the school closed, his students had enough material to complete 30 wooden urns – but no equipment and then, no students.

“It was a nightmare,” he said.

Valley hired him this year, Principal Anthony Griego gave his blessing and the project was on again.

“He just came in and told us about the project, and we were all on board,” said student Juan Pacheco, 17.

The students built 18 urns this semester, eight of which will be used for the October burial. Five of the dead are from families who could not afford a burial; three died alone and unclaimed.

A ninth urn will be presented to the family of a veteran who recently claimed their loved one.

Another urn was made specially by Pacheco for his own father, an Army veteran who died when Pacheco was 9.

“They had him in a plastic box,” Perez said. “When he came in and asked to make one, I almost cried.”

Besides last week’s assembly, Perez and his students have been featured in a segment that aired on CNN and another on “Inside Edition.”

It’s a heady time for a bunch of students, many of them freshmen, who are learning that sometimes school is more than assignments or book learning, but lessons of the heart and of character, efforts bigger than themselves, projects that are eternal.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg.