Celebrating Twenty, and with Trees Aplenty

Baby trees in the forest

Oh my, how time flies. The Northwoods Casket Company will be celebrating TWENTY YEARS in spring of 2024! Over the years we’ve grown from a small sole proprietorship working out of our basement and carriage house workshop, to an LLC, then an S Corp, and now a C Corp since 2018. Some things haven’t changed though and that includes that we are an independent family-owned business loyal to local-sourcing, sustainability, and delivering the finest quality products to Wisconsin funeral homes with a next-day service guarantee. Julie & I are proud to have served Wisconsin funeral homes almost 20 years and we very much look forward to at least 20 more.

In collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources, we’d like to prepare for several tree-planting projects in the Spring of 2024. As many of our loyal supporters already know, we committed in 2010 to plant 100 trees in Wisconsin for every casket we make. A few years later, when we introduced our cremation urns, we added another 10 tree seedlings to our count. Not only do we plant trees for every casket or urn purchased, we also add to our count for any pre-arranged casket or cremation urn!!

In 2022, we delivered 448 caskets to funeral homes in Wisconsin. (OK, we did deliver a select few to movie sets, but that’s another story!) We also delivered 306 cremation urns to Wisconsin funeral homes and sold 522 cremation urns throughout the US and Canada via our online stores at Etsy.com, Northwoodscasket.com, and Amazon.com stores. All together, we are planting just over 53,000 trees in Wisconsin next year for the 2022 tally!! Please consider helping us reach our goal of planting 150,000 trees next year!

Please join us in our call to action as follows:

Funeral Directors

  1. Pre-arrange one of our caskets or cremation urns and let us know (a simple email will do).

  2. Make sure you have our latest lithos, binder, or digital images available to your families in your selection rooms.

For those funeral homes already displaying our quality craft caskets and urns, we thank you for your loyalty and support. We know you have your choice in casket and urn vendors; from everyone at the Northwoods Casket Company, we THANK YOU for your support.

General Public

  1. Contact your local funeral home and update your funeral plan today! Include any of our caskets or cremation urns in your pre-arrangement (no need to pre-order or pre-pay). We will add 100 trees for each casket, and 10 trees for each cremation urn, that your funeral home confirms.

  2. Encourage your family and friends to do the same.

For those of you who have already pre-arranged one of our products, remind your funeral director to let us know (a simple email will do).

Planting trees in Beaver Dam

Congratulations Taylor On Your Retirement

After 8 fantastic years representing Northwoods Casket Company, Taylor Page is leaving us for that milestone we all look forward to : RETIREMENT.

We are sad to see Taylor go, but also excited about all the fishing, hiking, basketball, and craft beer tasting he will enjoy moving forward. We will be forever grateful to him for helping us take the little casket company we started in our garage with only a handful of funeral home customers to the thriving company it is today with several hundred loyal customers throughout Wisconsin and neighboring states. Taylor's dedication, excellent customer service, and witty, self-deprecating humor will be sorely missed at NWCC.

~ Julie and Jonas Zahn, Owners of Northwoods Casket Company

Coping with Uncertainty

Let us focus on compassion and understanding

In the past several weeks, I have spoken with many of our friends in funeral service, and the only thing that appears certain is...uncertainty!! Uncertainty about scheduling burials and cremations, about the safety of families and co-workers, about pricing and cash flows, and uncertainty about what all of this will mean to funeral service and funeral directors as we move into our new "normal." (whatever that is...)

Families need compassion, understanding, and direction now more than ever.  They also need, and should expect, value and options when public funerals as we know them have to be modified for the safety of us all.  I have heard from many of you that the Coronavirus has not suddenly pushed your direct cremation rate to 100%; and that many families are still proceeding with their plans for funeral and graveside services, as long as public health guidelines are adhered to.  Some of you are live-streaming, using Facebook Live, or even just a cellphone video to make services more accessible.  Limiting visitations to 10 at a time, and social distancing at the cemetery can also be accomplished.  Whatever you are doing to add value to the experience of death and loss...Thank You.

From all of us at Northwoods Casket Company, please stay safe out there; and know that we are here to help.  Our local operation and supply chain enables us to deliver caskets and urns whenever you need them; our prices and terms are fair; our website includes all of our available inventory, and is easily accessible to your families, especially if they are not able to select a casket or urn in person.  No pricing information is shown on our site, and none will be given on the phone, except to licensed funeral directors.   If you have special instructions for us on how you would like your caskets safely delivered during this time, please let us know.

Thank you for your support of Northwoods Casket Company, and we humbly ask for your increased support during these difficult times.

We appreciate you.

Taylor Page
Northwoods Casket Company

taylor-page.jpg

Taylor Page is a Client Relationship Manager at Northwoods Casket and has been a licensed funeral director in Wisconsin for almost 30 years.

Viewing the Film Dying Green and the Reflections of an Audience

Last month I had the opportunity to attend a community event entitled, Exploring Green Burial - Becoming The Tree, at the Goodman Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The 2012 documentary film, Dying Green, was the centerpiece of the evening presented by Walking Each Other Home, a Madison group dedicated to empowering families in caring for their own after death. The 27-minute film details the twenty-years-and-running story of Dr. Billy Campbell, his conservation cemetery at Ramsey Creek Preserve, and his vision

Designing an Experience

When my wife, Julie, and I purchased the former Koepsell-Murray Funeral home at 109 N. Lincoln Avenue last summer to create a gallery for our growing casket and furniture company, we embraced our opportunity to "design an experience” around the needs of a family making funeral arrangements. This would be no trivial task; we accepted the challenge and have learned a few things along the way worth sharing.