A comforting hand

When people walk through the doors
of Milano Monuments to purchase
a memorial for their loved ones, Jim Milano could refer to them as customers or clients, but he chooses to call
them his families.

“A good friend of mine asked me a long
time ago, ‘Why do you think your business
became successful?’” says Milano, president of the Cleveland-based cemetery
memorial company. “We struggled for a
long time when I first started in my family’s
business in the early ’80s, up til about 1990.
When it became about the families, the
community and the people we serve — not
what we get out of it — everything seemed
to change.

“It just feels good to help people. We’ve
been blessed with the growth of our business where we can help more.”

These acts of kindness have included
countless in-kind corporate donations to
hundreds of churches and religious organizations to support their fundraising events.

Milano started a baby marker donation
program last summer in which families
who have experienced the loss of an infant
can receive a free cemetery memorial.

The company donates many memorials
and plaques each year, but Milano says he
doesn’t do it for the recognition. His company’s donations have included a plaque at
the Justice Center honoring Cleveland’s
first black police officer and a memorial for
a newborn baby found in a Lorain County
quarry, as well as a large-scale memorial
honoring the Brook Park Marines who
were killed in Iraq last year.

Milano serves on the board of trustees for
Cornerstone of Hope and the Northern
Ohio Italian Association, and says everyone should have a page in history, without
regard to their financial situation. This fall,
he launched a grant program with Cornerstone of Hope to assist those who can’t
afford to buy memorials for themselves or
for their family members.

“People live 60 or 70 years, and they have nothing,” he says. “There should be some
visible reminder of a life that was lived.”

HOW TO REACH: Milano Monuments, (800) 626-7125 or
www.milanomonuments.com