Sunday, June 21, 2015
Staff report
BOARDMAN
When Madison Stewart started to plan a party to celebrate her graduation from Canfield High School this year, she didn’t imagine that it would take place at a venue with "funeral" in its name.
“A lot of people were like, ‘Isn’t that a funeral home?’ I was like, ‘No!’” she said of Lane Family Funeral Homes’ event center, located off of Market Street on Tod Avenue and attached to the Anstrom Chapel.
Stepping inside the facility, which the company is promoting as an all-purpose event center, one is reminded more of a hotel conference center, with its
Chief Operating Officer Bill Forsberg and Events Coordinator Kattie Royal point to other features of the newly-refurbished site that allows it to accommodate events of all kinds, such as: a 200-seat multi-purpose room, 100-plus parking spots, a fireplace with adjacent seating areas, and a basement with a “bistro area,” and a banquet room with a dance floor and space for 175 people.
What Lane is attempting is something that other funeral homes across the country are doing in increasing numbers.
“It’s still not terribly widespread, but there is an increase in funeral homes that are remodeling existing facilities or building new facilities that are capable of accommodating events,” said Jessica Koth, spokeswoman for the National Funeral Directors Association.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.