‘Heroes to many’: Support offered to Humboldt students
Posted April 10, 2018 10:02 am.
Last Updated April 10, 2018 10:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HUMBOLDT, Sask – Students at the epicentre of the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy are being offered a lot of support as they try to cope with the death of 15 people, many of them former classmates.
Folks with the local school boards had to hold back their emotions this morning.
“These were our kids,” said Kevin Garinger, choking back tears. he is also the Bronco’s team president.
“These athletes are and were heroes to many,” said Garinger. “And in them, our students see shining examples of the young adults and athletes they’re dreaming of growing up to be.”
“In the days to come, our students will require a great deal of support and love to cope with this loss,” he adds.
Four of the Humboldt Broncos players injured in Friday’s horrific bus crash remain in critical condition. The Saskatchewan Health Authority says eight others are also still in hospital in Saskatoon, four of them listed as serious and four stable.
“In dark times, the only way out is straight ahead, But in the darkness, where is forward?” asks Greg Chaitlain with the local Catholic school board .
Chaitlain says tragedy response teams are in classrooms, and every agency he’s dealt with has spared nothing. “Whatever you need. Even the premier, when he called me on Saturday said, ‘Greg, whatever you need.”
Garinger says no student, parent or teacher has to feel alone.
The Broncos junior team was heading to Nipawin on Friday when the crash happened at an intersection north of Tisdale, Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Justice apologized yesterday after authorities mixed up the identities of one of the deceased and one of the survivors in the crash. The coroner’s office mistook the body of 18-year-old goalie Parker Tobin for that of Xavier Labelle. Labelle is injured but alive, and Tobin is among those who died.
Support for the victims’ families and survivors has been pouring in from around the world, and is being received with gratitude.
A GoFundMe page set up for survivors and victims’ families had raised over $7 million.
