In 1999, Elissa Davey of Vista learned that a baby had been found dead among the trash in Chula Vista. “Who would do something like that?” she thought. “I couldn’t forget it.”

Eventually, Davey called the coroner’s office where the baby’s body had been taken and asked what had happened. She was told the body was still there, unclaimed, and unnamed.

Since no one had stepped forward, the body was destined to be buried in a pauper cemetery where unidentified bodies are interred with no ceremony or markers.

But the body could be claimed, even by a stranger, Davey learned, as long as that person assured the office the body would be given a dignified resting place.

Thus began Garden of Innocence, a nonprofit organization that provides funerals for unclaimed or abandoned dead children.

The children may have been dumped in trash or found by the side of the road, in a river or in a culvert, or on fire department, police department or hospital steps. Others are babies who have died in hospitals, then been abandoned by their families. Some are children whose bodies were cremated but never retrieved.

In the past, their bodies would join others in unmarked “potters” graves, with no need for a gravestone. Usually, the children had no known names.
Davey decided to change that.

From its small start, her organization has grown to form a board of directors and has establish community-run “gardens” throughout much of the state.

She said the effort counts on the help of those who can open their hearts to the organization’s task. And people do respond.

“We get volunteers in the community,” Davey said. “It takes 16 people to bury a baby.”

Garden of Innocence provides its services at no charge, giving each child a dignified burial and full memorial service accompanied by a color guard provided by the Knights of Columbus. Each burial costs about $1,080 for the plot, service fees and administrative costs.

Volunteers make the many phone calls it takes to claim the body of an abandoned child and make the arrangements for the child’s cremation and funeral.

Others make the small quilts in which the baby’s remains are swaddled. Some collect toys so that one — maybe the only toy the child ever had — is placed by the urn.

And others write poems; each child gets one.

“Even though they are cremains, it still makes you aware that you are taking care of a baby that had no one, so you take extra care to make sure they are comfortable,” Davey said.

The child also gets a name, because usually the abandoned bodies have none. “Each child gets a name given by the community. Most name them after a family member,” Davey said. “Everyone deserves a name.”

The urns, too, are made by volunteers, particularly Boy Scouts who are Eagle Scout candidates. Skilled woodworkers often are recruited or volunteer, as well.

Kenneth Paulk, Benicia’s city treasurer, heard about Garden of Innocence two years ago. He was saddened by the stories of the babies being abandoned. “They had no names — no nothing,” he said.

Paulk, a Home Depot Northern California branch manager, decided to get involved. His store supplies lumber and occasionally carpenters to Garden of Innocence, so the urns — and, sometimes, caskets — can be made. He’s also asked that others do the same.

The movement now has grown from San Diego County, where Davey started a program in a high school woodshop class, to having the cooperation of 32 California counties. In 17 years, 272 children have received Garden of Innocence funerals.

“It’s up to the discretion of the coroner,” Davey said. Her organization received Solano County’s coroner’s approval in 2011 to help with burials of abandoned and unidentified children.

Many of the Solano County children are buried in the San Francisco Columbarium, which Davey called “a beautiful place.” Others sometimes are buried in Sacramento or, occasionally, Butte County.

Among the next Garden of Innocence services will be one in Fresno on May 2, in which children Frances, Steven, Carter, Ted and Benji will be laid to rest. Davey recently claimed a baby found in a river in Bishop who will receive a Garden of Innocence memorial in Sacramento, and she has been speaking with an Oroville coroner in hopes of finding a cemetery that will permit Garden of Innocence burials there.

“We are the only nonprofit that wishes we were out of business,” she said. “We are the only memorial service that you will walk away from wanting to tell all your family and friends to come to. No one likes going to memorial services except ours. You walk away knowing you did something special for one hour on a Saturday morning.”

Donations to Garden of Innocence can be made at www.gardenofinnocence.org. Those interested also may email Elissa Davey at goinational@gmail.com.