ALBUQUERQUE, NM. (KRQE) - Students at in Albuquerque-area high school are putting their woodworking skills to good use, making urns to honor local veterans. 
 
 Thursday, those Valley High School students presented the urns to the county, and in return got the thanks they deserve. 
 
 “We built for the veterans and we just want to give back to the community,” student Emilio Alvarez said. 
 
 Valley High School woodshop teacher, Gino Perez, came up with the idea to create urns for the remains of unclaimed veterans. 
 
 “Quite frankly, I didn’t realize or even know the magnitude of what we were really doing here,” Perez said. 
 
 The state of New Mexico has 160,000 veterans. Dozens of them pass away each year, and their remains are left unclaimed. 
 
 “Some of them come home and they’re not the same as when they left, they face challenges. Life perhaps turns out in a way they did not intend,“ said New Mexico of Veterans Affairs Secretary Jack Fox. 
 
 That leaves the responsibility up to the county and the Office of Veterans Affairs to give these men and women, that served our country, a proper burial. 
 
 In the past, the remains were buried in a small black cardboard box. The Valley High students felt they deserved a more dignified send off, so they handcrafted 18 urns. 
 
 “I think this is a great way to show that even young people care about our veterans, and they deserve to be acknowledged,” Alvarez said. 
 
 In an assembly Thursday, the students presented their urns. Some of the earns will be used for burials next month at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. State officials expressed their gratitude at the school. 
 
 “Not only do they have a family of 160,000 New Mexico brothers and sisters, but they have Valley High as their family,” Fox said to the students. “I can’t begin to thank you enough.” 
 
 Valley High’s woodshop teacher says they hope to do this every year, and would welcome any donations from the community. 

 (CNN) A high school shop class in New Mexico is making sure the cremated remains of homeless and indigent veterans are interred with class. 
 
 Gino Perez's wood and metal shop class at Valley High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico made 18 handcrafted wooden urns adorned with the symbols of all the branches of the military. This year, nine of them will be used to hold the remains of US military veterans. 
 
 "I wanted to make it real clear the status of these Americans -- they're mostly homeless and they were also veterans with full military honors and nobody claimed their bodies," said Perez. 
 
 On any given night in America, there are more than 40,000 homeless veterans , according to the latest estimate by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 
 
 When honorably discharged, homeless or indigent veterans die in New Mexico, the Forgotten Heroes Burial Program provides a full military funeral at Santa Fe National Cemetery if there are no family members or friends to claim their remains or there is no money to provide for their funeral services, according to the New Mexico Department of Veterans' Services. The program launched in 2011. 
 
 "We will do a full on military funeral with Taps, a three-volley salute, the governor gives a eulogy and we invite the public to be a part," said Ray Seva, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Veterans' Services. "The public and the other veterans there, they become like the family." 
 
 "We provide the final salute that they deserve," Seva said. 
 
 The veterans' remains have historically been placed in black cardboard boxes, said Larry Gallegos, a spokesman for Bernalillo County. 
 
 "They were elegant and nice but he (Perez) said they deserve more than a cardboard box," Gallegos said. 
 
 "It's a lot more dignified, in my opinion, to be encased in wood," Perez said. 
 
 Urns built by this New Mexico shop class will hold the remains of veterans. 
 
 Perez, who has been a teacher for four years and is a Navy veteran himself was looking for a way to get his students involved in the community, while learning about metal and woodworking. 
 
 "I've never seen a group of students engage in a project like this. Even students that were down on the military for whatever reason -- they've all got their politics -- would say we're doing a good thing," Perez said. 
 
 Perez's three shop classes of about 30, mostly freshmen, students each completed the boxes in just the first few weeks of school. 
 
 The Valley High School shop class made 18 wooden urns. 
 
 "It was one of the neatest things I've ever seen," said Perez. "The speed which they did these projects is amazing." 
 
 He added: "We set it up kind of like an assembly line -- a project-based learning idea. Some accused me of sneaking in to work on the urns at night, but I assure you the kids did it all. All I did was keep them off their phones and keep them safe working with the equipment." 
 
 The students' work will be recognized Sept. 20 at an assembly that will include New Mexico Department of Veterans' Services Secretary Jack Fox, Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O'Malley and Joshua McManigal of Daniels Family Funeral Services, who all partner in the Forgotten Heroes Burial Program. 
 
 "It is amazing what these kids did," Perez said. "Most of the students are freshmen. They never had experience working with these tools. To be honest I was blown away." 
 
 "The gravity will set in when they have their assembly," he said. 
 
 Granite government tombstones mark the graves of veterans at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2016. The cemetery is administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 
 
 This year's the forgotten heroes burial will take place on Oct. 4, Seva said. 
 
 There will be a ceremony in Albuquerque where the remains will be put in a hearse and turned over from Bernalillo County to the state Department of Veterans' Services, Gallegos said. They will then travel 55 miles to Santa Fe escorted by police cars, fire engines and about 100 motorcycle-riding veterans who are members the American Legion Riders. 
 
 "They served our country and they should be given the respectful burial that they deserve," Gallegos said.
– More than 40,000 veterans spend their nights homeless, per Department of Housing and Urban Development numbers. A high school shop class in New Mexico is making sure 18 such veterans' eternal rest is a dignified one. CNN profiles the wood and metal shop class led by Gino Perez at Valley High School; the Albuquerque teens he teaches have crafted 18 wooden urns that will be used to hold the ashes of veterans. "I wanted to make it real clear the status of these Americans—they're mostly homeless and they were also veterans with full military honors and nobody claimed their bodies," Perez, himself a Navy veteran, tells CNN. Currently, such veterans' ashes in the state are placed in a black cardboard box and buried at Santa Fe National Cemetery as part of the Forgotten Heroes Burial Program. "It's a lot more dignified, in my opinion, to be encased in wood," Perez said. KRQE reports the urns will be used in burials at the cemetery in October.