Pre-arrangement is an often overlooked component of financial planning essentials, and we are here to partner with you to see that you and your family have the peace of mind that pre-arrangement brings.

At Bleitz, we have been bringing sensible funeral options to Seattle families for over 100 years. By pre-arranging your funeral, you can save your family and friends from very painful decisions when the time arises. Often, our families find it difficult to discuss these matters with their family, so our advisors not only help you through the decision process, but facilitate opening the discussion that many find uncomfortable and unpleasant. It doesn’t need to be; especially when you do it years in advance!

The funeral directors and funeral arrangers at Bleitz Funeral Home have over 55 years of experience helping families. Through our experience we have helped all faith organizations and offer unique options for services.

In our efforts to give back to the communities that we serve, Bleitz Funeral Home and their Associates have established 7 Community Outreach Partnerships.

Partnership 1 – Safety

When we care for those that have lived a good long life, the families come together in remembrance of a life well lived. But in our profession, sometimes what we see is the worst of the worst. A life that is taken prematurely brings the greatest of grief and sorrow.

If we can be at all instrumental in stopping the harm or death of our community members, we will! Our approach to accomplish this task is first, to educate! Teaming with police and fire departments, nationally acclaimed safety experts, and with Dignity Memorial Smart and Safe Living specialists, we deliver messages of safety and preparation taught in 10, 1 hour classes. They are:

1. Dignity Memorial Escape School (2 formats: 1. for Parents only, and 2. for Parents and their Children) – a class on abduction teaching to remove fear and be proactive by knowing what abduction is, how to avoid it, and what to do if it happens
2. Home Invasion – making your home a place of safety and a fortress against the invader
3. Fire and Burn Safety – overcoming the myths of fire and burns, what to do to have a safer home, and how to survive if you become a victim
4. Safety While Out and About – covering everything from purse snatching to car jacking, being safe while away from home
5. Safety While Traveling – how to be safe while traveling, domestically and abroad
6. Cons and Scams – what is a con or scam, a con artist, the anatomy of a con, how to spot a con and how to put a stop to it
7. Identity Theft – how it is done, what you can do to not become a victim, and what you must do if you become one
8. Heat Safety – understanding the heat index and the true risks of heat related illnesses, and what you can do to avoid these, as well as what to do if one becomes a victim
9. Disaster Preparation for the Community – why survival first begins at home, and why reliance must branch forth onto the neighbor and immediate community requiring them to come together in preparation against life threatening events
10. Disaster Preparation for the Professional – taking the preparation class one step further when taught to professional organizations and care institutions by instructing the proper care of the deceased (in what one would need to do if their facility were required to become a morgue)

In addition to this education, and in effort to meet higher safety needs of our community members, we offer:

1. Family Emergency Response Program – if you or a loved one is ever involved in an accident, this free program is designed to inform your family and friends of the event, so they can get to your bedside within 1 – 2 hours. In some cases this may mean the difference between seeing family alive, or not.
2. Away From Home Protection Plan – the participants in this one time low-charge protection plan are guaranteed; while traveling outside of 75 miles from home, (anywhere in the world) – if their death were to occur, they would be prepared and brought back home at no charge.

Partnership 2 – Health

As we work together to create happier and safer environments for our families, we cannot ignore health issues, which have such an impact on us all. Committing to be instrumental in stopping the harm or death of our community members requires us to face these issues, and to take part in what we can to help.

For this cause we have joined the fight against disease and illness.

1. Defeat Diabetes – we have united with the American Diabetes Association in the fight against Diabetes where once a year we Step Out To Fight Diabetes and (with sponsors behind us) walk against this potentially life threatening disease

Partnership 3 – Honoring Our Heroes

To remember those that serve to protect us, those who work to keep us healthy, and those that help us at our darkest hours of need – and that we may never forget those who have stood in our defense; we stand in partnership side by side with all of our community members in honoring our heroes.

There are those that have given the ultimate sacrifice for the liberty of them who desire to be free, and there are those at home that have given the same for the safety and preservation of life of their community members. For all of these, we humbly give:

1. The Public Servants Program – any officer or fire fighter that dies in the line of duty we will care for at no cost, that those left behind are not required to carry this added burden
2. Law Enforcement Memorial Day Luncheon and Service – every May 13th we join our country in remembrance of our fallen Police Officers, and in appreciation for those that continue to serve
3. The Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall – a traveling ¾ scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, traveling to Dignity Memorial Cemeteries throughout the country in honor of all U.S. veterans
4. The Homeless Veterans Program – for those veterans that are truly homeless at the time of their passing we desire to give the proper services and burial with the dignity that they deserve
5. The VFW Seminar – our alliance with the VFW in bringing to it’s many members the education and program to assist them in preplanning their end of life affairs
6. The American Legion Seminar – in kind to the VFW alliance
7. Veterans Day Program – honoring all of our Veterans
8. Memorial Day Weekend Event – held at our Dignity Memorial Parks and Cemeteries to honor all of the heroes in our care

Partnership 4 – Making Fond & Everlasting Memories

As families gather to make final arrangements for a loved one passed away, we have found that stories and photos become the greatest of all treasures. But all too often, there are regrets surrounding stories forgotten, genealogies not kept, and memories lost.

We take a stand against these sorrows while increasing quality of life by striving to get families and folks together to share, organize and record these stories, photos, voices and memories, before death – while they are still together and able to share in these living memories and experiences.

1. Scrapbook Workshops – traveling and facility sponsored workshops complete with all the materials, you bring the photos
2. Senescence – a series of 5 facilitated events assisting families in pulling together and organizing the records, stories, recipes, photos, and voices – from childhood through the golden years, and make these fond memories of life “everlasting”
3. Genealogy 101 – get your Family History started in this 1 hour workshop using the 6 basic steps of family history research, and by filling in your pedigree charts and family group records

Partnership 5 – End of Life Affairs

This is what we do best; care for families in making preparations for, and performing the tasks required at time of final disposition of those that have departed from us.

When it comes time to make final arrangements, we continually experience the difference between a family who has in advance prepared for that day, and the family who waited until that day to act, and it is day and night! The family that waits has to make enormous emotional and financial decisions at what very well may be the worst day of their life! As a result, the decisions are often not the decisions they would have made if they had taken the time before hand to discuss and plan together. The family that has prepared can grieve, and share in the memory of their loved one uninhibited on the day they are called to do so.

To remove this additional sadness and to help people prepare, we reach out again through education. We eliminate myth, misinformation, and concern from topics often considered “taboo”, and empower the individual and the family to make decisions that are informed, wise, and together!

1. Planning Ahead for All The Right Reasons – an introduction to pre-planning funeral and cemetery or cremation and memorialization, designed to help those who have been thinking about entering the preparation process to go ahead and take the right steps, and for those who have not thought about it to begin
2. Finishing Strong – covering the three main topics in end of life decision making: Estate Planning, Medical Care Directives, and Preplanning or Prearranging a Funeral (tools are also offered in this class to help with Medical Care Directives and Preplanning)
3. Understanding Options and Making Wise Choices – a frank educational class and discussion covering all details about cremation, burial, memorialization, understanding expenses, etc.
4. End of Life Preparation Workshop – a 4-hour educational and paperwork workshop where attendees can become prepared, literally walk out educated and preplanned, in a setting that is safe and comfortable

In addition to education, and in effort to meet specific funeral needs of groups within our communities, we offer:

1. The Gold Star Program – unique to serving the needs of faith organizations, and opening communications between them and the funeral professional
2. The Employee Bereavement Benefit Program – available to the employer to add to their employee benefit package

Partnership 6 – Grief Management & After Care

We see day in and day out the grief that falls on families, friends, and community members at the loss of a loved one.

To help people manage this grief we provide tools, programs and classes.

1. Picking Up the Pieces – award winning publications on Grief Management available at no charge at any Dignity Memorial Network Provider
2. Grief Management Library – a selection of materials from the Picking up the Pieces series gathered into a single display box and placed at private and public locations for use by all who need it (box is placed and followed up with minimum of 1 time a month maintenance and restock visits)
3. Grief Management Library Training – training management and staff on utilizing the library for maximum results and service
4. Talking Through Your Grief – from “Picking up the Pieces”, a series of grief management classes with open discussions to assist family and friends through their most difficult time
5. Grief Management for the Care Giver – a facilitated class and discussion for the professional care giver on grief at the loss of a client
6. L.I.F.T. (Living Information For Today) – a facilitated gathering of widows and widowers sharing in the experiences of their loss and grief, and helping each other through these very difficult times
7. Teleconference – Hospice Foundation of America exists to help those who cope personally with terminal illness, death, and the process of grief and bereavement. Each year HFA broadcasts a teleconference focusing on a chosen grief topic, and ways we can best support the grieving on how to cope. Included is a book newly published for the event combining academic research with hands on ideas for use in support groups, as well as other settings. After the broadcast of the national panel portion, a local panel discussion moderated by Dignity Memorial associates is held. Each year we host this great event providing location and materials to benefit the grieving.

Partnership 7 – Community Development & Service

Finally, our last partnership is to add to the constant efforts of so many in developing closer, stronger, and more united communities.

We do this in three ways; 1st making our facilities available to our communities when a place of meeting is needed, 2nd forming alliances with groups that have like goals as to the partnerships above, and 3rd meeting the need when possible as needs arise.

1. Access to us and our facilities – as groups form for community causes we wish to make available the use of our facilities as meeting halls with provision that a funeral service is not scheduled at that time
2. Events at our facilities – all the classes and events above are provided to groups in their own facilities, but also are held regularly at our facilities where all community members are welcome to attend. In addition to regular classes, and in addition to events regarding the Honoring of our Heroes, there are many annual events held at our Memorial Parks:
3. Easter Sunrise Service – Dignity Memorial Parks and Cemeteries annual Easter Sunrise services are open to all community members, as well as to all churches and their congregations
4. Christmas Candlelight Service – as with our Easter Sunrise Services all community members, all families that have given us the honor to care for their loved ones, and all churches with their congregations are welcome
5. Clergy Golf Tournament – an annual “thank you” to the ‘heart’ of our communities, open to clergy of all Faiths
6. Alliances – as we form alliances in our communities, we wish to make available our services to their people and partnerships, and in turn make their services available to ours

We invite all to participate and enjoy these gifts and programs with no obligation.