Volunteers sort through thousands of flowers to raise funds for the Little Angels Project

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Thousands of recycled artificial flowers lined the tables at Wyuka Stables on Saturday.

Volunteers with the Wyuka Historical Foundation took in old flowers, fixed them up and resold them.

Every donation goes toward the Little Angels Project.

“We have babies and children buried here, only with a number,” said Faye Osborn, a member of the Wyuka Historical Foundation. “A little circle on their grave site with a number. I said, ‘everybody needs a name, or an identity.’ So we started buying headstones for these children to be identified. We have some information on some, some may only say ‘little boy’ or ‘little girl’, but at least it’s better than a number.”

The project focuses on the unmarked graves in Wyuka, helping to identify the children and babies.

Greg and Faye Osborn got the idea for the project after seeing so many beautiful flowers end up in the landfill.

“I said, ‘What are you doing with those?’ And they told me it was going out to the landfill,” said Faye. “I said, ‘No, it is not, there’s got to be a use for this.’ So I became a dumpster diver and saved them. From then on, it’s what we’ve done. Every year we clean up the graves, make them look nice and have the flowers.”

Across Wyuka Cemetery, there are over 2,850 babies and children without markers.

By giving away the flowers, the group can keep items from going to waste and beautify Baby Land.

“They had no family, so they’ve become our family,” said Greg Osborn. “Being involved here at Wyuka, we’ve grown to love it.”

Osborn said the support from the community goes a long way. The group hopes to place more than 20 gravestones.

“Hopefully, if we have a good day here, we’ll get close to the $7,500 area,” he said. “But generally speaking, we raise somewhere between $6,000 to $9,000 a year.”