Community Care Center marks National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day – The Olympian

The Community Care Center hosted an event on Friday to mark National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, which falls on the winter solstice.

Buttons were made in remembrance of those who died in the past year. A button-making machine was put out for people to use, with neon paper available in orange, purple and yellow. There was also a makeshift photo booth, where people could take pictures with their buttons that could be printed out.

Meg Martin, the executive director for Interfaith Works, helped organize the activities.

“Part of what we do is try to create space when someone has passed away,” Martin said. “Whether we have a memorial wall or we do memorial services, this is something we’ve always done. It’s always been really important to us to honor peoples’ lives. Trying to be supportive of our community however we can.


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“National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day is an event that happens all across the country. Different communities do their own version of the event. This year there’s been so much going on around this issue in our community, and we just felt like it was really important to do something chill, calm, creative and just reflective.”

Brianna Casterline, from Olympia, was there to memorialize her younger brother Duke Casterline, who passed away a few weeks ago. She was close to her brother, and remembered him for his protective nature.

“You mess with my sister, you got me to deal with,” Brianna said, invoking the spirit of her later brother.

Lynette Shaffer, from Olympia, made a button in honor of her close friend Stacey Conway, who passed away earlier this year. Shaffer had Conway’s dog, Buddha, with her at the event.

For both Casterline and Shaffer, the event was important to them because they were able to create memories of their loved ones.

Thank you
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