GREENWOOD, Ind. (WISH) — The unclaimed cremated remains of 168 Hoosiers were laid to rest Wednesday afternoon at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Greenwood.

The burial event was put on by local ministry He Knows Your Name in partnership with the Indiana Funeral Care funeral home, where the remains had been left unclaimed.

He Knows Your Name aims to offer dignity and hope to any person, especially infants, that have been left unclaimed and without a dignified burial.

According to the ministry’s founder Linda Znachko, the event’s main goal was to offer that dignified final resting place to those left unclaimed and to emphasize their value, even after they have passed.

The event featured a marked headstone, a dove send off, hymns, scripture reading, and the reading of the names of those that had passed.

“There is no honor and dignity for them to sit in a back room, in the dark, unknown and never celebrated,” Znachko said.

“Many of the cremated remains had been left behind in the funeral home’s storage closet for years, possibly even decades,” Znachko said.

The issue isn’t specific to Indiana, though.

According to IFC’s general manager Sara Thompson, it is happening nationally. She says burial should be the goal for funeral homes.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to get them out of storage, just being left there and give them a place where they can actually be honored,” Thompson said.

Znachko urged anyone with a family member left unclaimed to have a conversation and create a plan to claim them.