Kim Habicht, Nederland.

This weekend, Gail Rubin, a death educator and funeral expert based in New Mexico, will be carrying a casket stuffed with a colorful skeleton across state-lines.

Her destination is the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival, which she has participated in since 2011.

“In 2010, I saw a national news story about the festival, and thought, ‘I have to be there next year,’” she said.

Rubin has previously worn many hats at the festival. She created the “Newly-Dead Game” event and has been in charge of the screening of the “Grandpa’s in the TUFF SHED” film. This year, though, she will be taking on a new role.

Rubin will be acting as a liason for Fathers Building Futures, a nonprofit based out of New Mexico that provides jobs and skills to previously incarcerated parents. Fathers Building Futures is hoping to expand their organization to Colorado, and part of this expansion effort involves sponsoring a casket in the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival in Nederland.

The Fathers Building Futures organization allows participants to learn a skill, for example, auto detailing, mobile power washing or custom woodworking. The hope is that with these skills, individuals can more smoothly assimilate into the workforce after incarceration.

Fathers Building Futures addresses a shocking reality for ex-convicts: within three years of release, about two-thirds of released prisoners will be rearrested, according to the National Institute of Justice.

Rubin is on the board of directors for the nonprofit. In addition to attending festivities this weekend, she’ll be educating festival-goers about the group’s mission.

“I want to let people know that they’re building these caskets with great care. These men are so familiar with death, and it’s a way to inspire new beginnings for them,” said Rubin.

Participants of the Fathers Building Futures program build caskets and urns among other things.

Rubin says that the natural-pine caskets that they make are “beautiful.”

“There’s an exceptional level of craftsman artistry,” she said.

The natural-pine caskets are also kosher and are great for natural burials, according to Rubin.

She has been exploring the field of green burials and will be giving a talk on March 9 in Highlands Ranch, at the Eastridge Recreation Center.

“A lot of people don’t realize that embalming is optional, and that it puts a lot of harmful chemicals in the ground. Cremation also has a large carbon footprint,” Rubin said. On March 9, she’ll talk more about alternative options for more environmentally-conscious burials, such as alkaline hydrolysis, in which the deceased’s body is placed in a tank of water, which is then heated and pressurized until the body dissolves.

Rubin has a packed schedule this weekend, but she’s anxious for the festivities to begin. She’s particularly looking forward to the live vultures event that will take place in the Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center.

“I love my job as the doyenne of death,” she said, “And the festival is the highlight of my year.”