The Birth of Caskets of Compassion in Fort Worth 76104.
The Birth of Caskets of Compassion in Fort Worth 76104.
“You are not alone. Someone cares for you.”
In 2025, as we prepared for Fort Worth’s first Guns to Gardens event, our leader, Jan Orr-Harter of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, shared an important part of the plan: before the event, we would hold a Blessing of the Chop Saw. We would gather to pray over the saw that would transform unwanted guns into garden tools—tools we could later use to cultivate food and new life in our community.
As preparations continued, someone suggested that we march through Morningside and pray on every street where someone had experienced gun trauma. Another person offered an idea that would make the march impossible to forget: clergy in their robes would lead the procession, rolling a casket down Mississippi Avenue.
That idea became a powerful ritual. The March for Mercy was born.
Clergy and community members walked together, singing and praying as they remembered lives lost and families forever changed by gun violence. Before we reached the church, a white hearse arrived to take the casket back to the funeral home. The hearse, the casket, and the procession moving forward as people continued to sing made the moment feel almost like a scene from a movie.
Local media captured the march, but its deeper meaning was visible in the faces of those gathered. This community had chosen to remember, grieve together, and stand in solidarity.
When the marchers reached New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, we went inside to bless the chop saw. The ceremony joined prayer with action. We were preparing to transform unwanted guns into garden tools that would help us grow food and serve our neighbors. The day gave us a lasting picture of what can happen when a community faces pain together and begins working toward something life-giving.
A year later, as we prepared for the second annual Blessing of the Chop Saw and Guns to Gardens event in Fort Worth’s Morningside community, we planned to bring back the march. Once again, clergy and community members would sing as they rolled a casket down Mississippi Avenue. But the forecast called for rain, and we had to postpone the march.
We had already ordered the casket. We had to decide what to do with it. Should we cancel it, or find a way to make it part of the ceremony?
We chose to include it.
On October 1, 2026—the first day of National Crime Prevention Month—the Caskets of Compassion initiative was born. The rain changed the shape of the gathering, but it opened the way for a new expression of its purpose.
Leaders placed the casket behind the chop saw, with a cross behind it. The arrangement brought together the realities we had come to face: lives lost to gun trauma, the grief carried by families, the work of transforming violence into tools for growing food, and the hope we find in faith.
When it was time to explain the casket’s meaning, I wanted everyone in the room to understand the message—especially families affected by homicide and suicide: You are not alone. Someone cares for you.
Allison Liles, Epiphany Episcopal Church began reading the names aloud. As each name was read, an audience member placed it inside the casket. Name by name, the room grew quiet and attentive. There were 26 names. Each represented a person whose life had been lost and a family left to carry the pain of that loss. The grief did not belong to those families alone; it had touched the whole community.
When Derrick Johnson of Angel Hills Funeral Directors closed the casket at the end of the ceremony, the gesture was heavy with meaning. It seemed to gather the weight of those 26 families into the hearts and minds of everyone present. The casket was closed, but the names and the families behind them could not be put away or forgotten. They called us to remember, to care, and to keep asking what more we could do.
Caskets of Compassion must become more than a moving symbol at a single ceremony. It can become a rallying cry for families, clergy, and communities to unite and advocate for compassionate care for everyone affected by gun trauma. People who have lost loved ones to suicide or homicide need support that recognizes the depth of their grief and stays with them beyond the immediate crisis.
In Tarrant County, firearm suicides exceed firearm homicides, yet suicide often receives little public attention unless the person who died was widely known. Every death leaves people behind—parents, children, spouses, friends, and neighbors trying to understand what happened and how to move forward. The trauma is real, whether a family is grieving a homicide or a suicide. We have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to develop better ways to care for those families and the communities most affected.
That responsibility was present throughout the ceremony. We blessed the chop saw, honored victims of gun trauma in our 76104 community, and dedicated our church’s garden in honor of Travell “Tre” Boyer and all the lives and families affected by gun trauma. Nearby, fruit still hung from the vines. It offered a quiet but powerful reminder: even in a place marked by loss, life continues to grow. With care, patience, and help from one another, a garden can produce nourishment. A community, too, can nurture hope and new possibilities.
The garden does not erase what happened. Neither do the casket, the prayer, or the blessing. But each can help us tell the truth about loss while affirming that grief will not have the final word. We can honor those who are gone by caring for those who remain, making room for families to mourn, and creating practical ways to help our neighbors heal.
A single act of concern and kindness can give birth to something that offers hope. When tragedy touches a family or community, people need to hear—and see—that they are not abandoned.
The song “Someone Who Cares,” associated with Jimmie Davis, carries that same message. It reminds us that when life feels lonely or discouraging, we can find comfort in the care of Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us to cast our burdens on Him, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).
The rain postponed the march, but it did not stop the second annual Blessing of the Chop Saw. Those who gathered witnessed something special: a casket becoming a spiritual symbol of compassion, a call to action, and a reminder to families grieving gun trauma that they are not alone.
At the garden dedication, we remembered Tre with these words:
Today, We Did Not Just Dedicate a Garden
Today, we did not just dedicate a garden—
we dedicated a memory.
We dedicated this garden in honor of everyone affected by gun trauma, and especially in honor of Travell “Tre” Boyer:
a son of this community and a soldier in the army of the Lord—
a young man whose life, though too short,
was filled with presence, purpose, and promise.
Tre was more than a name—
he was a spirit felt in the room,
a smile remembered in the heart,
a life that touched this church and this community.
As we left the ceremony, the fruit on the vines pointed us toward the promise of new life. The names in the casket called us to remember those we had lost. The chop saw and the garden reminded us that our hands can still be put to work for the living.
The work continues on Sunday, October 18, 2026, at 2:00 p.m., when we will hold the second Guns to Gardens event at New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, 2864 Mississippi Avenue, Fort Worth, Texas 76104.
The church stands in a ZIP code with the lowest life expectancy in Texas, according to UT Southwestern’s analysis of 2005–2014 data. The community has also faced severe health and economic challenges: a Tarrant County report identified 76104 as having the county’s highest infant mortality rate for 1997–2001, and recent Census estimates show that poverty remains high.
That day, in Fort Worth 76104, we found another way to say:
You are not alone. Someone cares for you.
Media:
• Guns ’N Roses: At the inaugural Guns to Gardens, volunteers accepted surrendered firearms and broke them down with an eye toward repurposing them into tools and art later.: https://www.fwweekly.com/2025/09/10/guns-n-roses-2/
• Firearm disposal event Sept. 6 brings “Guns to Gardens” to Texas: https://fortworthreport.org/2025/08/29/firearm-disposal-event-sept-6-brings-guns-to-gardens-to-texas/
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Garden and Gun: A new faith-based organization has the tools to give old guns new life: https://www.fwweekly.com/2025/09/03/garden-and-gun/
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