NFDA Congratulates 2017 Best of the Best Award Recipients

Brookfield, Wis. – The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) is pleased to announce that the following funeral homes have earned the 2017 Best of the Best Award for innovation in the profession: Arlington Memorial Chapels Inc. of Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines; Old Bridge Funeral Home of Old Bridge, N.J.; and Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Homes and Crematory of New Castle, Del.

Arlington Memorial Chapels was recognized for its “Tree of a Kind” program during the holidays, which urged members of the community to perform acts of kindness. Old Bridge Funeral Home earned the award for creating All Around Old Bridge, a monthly newspaper that highlights positive news in the community. Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Homes and Crematory received the Best of the Best Award for developing an original presentation, “The Science Behind Funerals” for local high school students.

These firms are among the nearly 165 funeral homes that earned a 2017 Pursuit of Excellence Award. This award is presented by NFDA annually to firms that have demonstrated a commitment to raising the bar on funeral service excellence by adhering to strict ethical and professional standards and providing outstanding service to families and communities.

All Pursuit of Excellence applicants submitted an essay describing the development and execution of an innovative program or service that had a positive impact on the families they serve or their community.

After carefully reviewing the essays, the Pursuit of Excellence Committee selected five finalists for the Best of the Best Award. All NFDA members had the opportunity to read finalists’ essays and vote for the idea they thought was most worthy of recognition. The three firms that earned the most votes were named Best of the Best Award winners.

The other finalists for the Best of the Best Award were Chambers & James Funeral, Pet & Cremation Services of Wellsburg, W.Va.; and Reynolds Jonkhoff Funeral Home & Cremation Services of Traverse City, Mich.

The essays submitted by the Best of the Best award recipients and the finalists can be found on the NFDA website, www.nfda.org/pursuitofexcellence.

NFDA will honor the 2017 Pursuit of Excellence Award recipients, including the Best of the Best Award winners, on October 30 during the All-Star Recognition Ceremony, which will take place during the 2017 NFDA International Convention & Expo in Boston.

Information about the NFDA Pursuit of Excellence program can be found by visiting http://www.nfda.org/pursuitofexcellence. Registration and application materials for 2018 will be available in late-October 2017.

NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving 19,700 individual members who represent more than 10,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nfda.org.