Students explore coronary career choice

Telford’s Chapel of the Valley is hidden behind the East Wenatchee Dutch Bros., but the excitement surrounding the Creepy Careers event was anything but concealed.

The first event in a series of job shadows called Careers After School, available to middle school and high school students, was hosted by Wenatchee Learns Connect and the Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce Oct. 19. The program could only host 20 students so only interested and dedicated students were in attendance.

The event began with Detective Randy Grant leading the group through what he does when he gets to the scene, said Wenatchee High School sophomore Hannah Johnson. This took place in the funeral home’s chapel, and Johnson was there to photograph the event.

“It was interesting, especially because that’s a job I could never do so it was neat to learn about it,” Johnson said.

Next, the chapel’s owner and head embalmer Rick Phillips led a tour around the facility. The students, parents, reporters, and staff members listened intently as Phillips explained the duties of an embalmer. With the assistance of Earl Crowe, chief deputy coroner for Chelan County, the group learned that one of an embalmer’s services is preparing bodies to be viewed.

Phillips has embalmed over 4,000 people in his career. One man asked whether anybody he had worked with hadn’t truly been dead. Phillips laughed and told the group this had never been the case, but elaborated.

“When someone dies and it’s a traumatic thing, their nerves are still active,” he said. “I have had [situations] where I’ve started to embalm someone and when the [nerve system] is hit, they will move.”

The group then moved on to the crematorium, the only on-sight cremation furnace in the valley, Phillips said. When a body comes to the home, it’s first stored in a large cooler. As the group circled around the cooler, one student pointed out the Little Caesars logo on one wall. Phillips explained that when Little Caesars had closed, their pizza fridge met his needs perfectly.

When bodies come to Telford’s, the family must decide if they want their relative to be buried or cremated. If they choose cremation, at least half of the family has to give positive consent. A body would then be cremated in the cremation furnace.

One of the things they learned is that people over 400 pounds have to be brought to a more accommodating crematorium in Seattle, that Telford’s gets about 300 calls a year, and that 80 percent of bodies are cremated.

Rick Phillips, funeral home owner, employs eight people. His interest in the job began in high school after he lost his girlfriend. “Through the grieving process, the funeral director helped me through that,” Phillips said, “I wanted to turn around and be able to help people through difficult times”. He values the opportunity to help families through their most difficult times.

After the tour was over, the interest level among the students present was high. The event sparked an interest in many, showcasing careers that aren’t often considered.

“This is so unique,” said Diana Haglund, coordinator for Wenatchee Learns. “We knew kids would think it was fascinating.”