OLDS - Town of Olds officials continue to honour and remember the victims and families of the deadly Humboldt bus crash two years later while also maintaining their part in continuing the Logan Boulet Effect.
Council proclaimed Tuesday, April 7, 2020 Green Shirt Day in Olds, just as they had marked April 7 the previous year.
“This proclamation of the Green Shirt Day of course has a very significant Olds connection,” said the town’s mayor, Mike Muzychka, prior to the adoption of the proclamation.
On April 6, 2018, a semi crashed into a bus carrying players and staff of the Humboldt Broncos junior A hockey team near Armley, Saskatchewan. Sixteen people were killed and 13 injured.
A day after the crash, one of the players, Logan Boulet, succumbed to his injuries. His parents, Bernadine and Toby, donated his organs so that six lives could be saved. Boulet had made his intention to donate known to his parents.
Muzychka pointed out that Boulet’s father grew up in Olds and has a big connection to the community.
“So we feel very deeply about this tragedy that happened in Humboldt two years ago,” said the mayor. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it's already been two years already. It still hits home and I still get choked up every time I think about it."
The Logan Boulet Effect is how the Canadian Transplant Association describes the historical numbers of people -- over an estimated 100,000 -- registering to become organ donors in the days and weeks that followed.
To date, that surge in registrations is the largest number of Canadians registering to become organ donors in Canadian history due to one event or one person.
“It is such a phenomenal story coming out of such a huge tragedy. And our hearts still go out every day, or mine at least does, to the Boulet family,” he said.
Doug Wagstaff, Olds’ director of community services, said Green Shirt Day was created to continue Boulet’s legacy by inspiring Canadians to talk to their families and register as organ donors.
“It’s important to keep that conversation going,” Wagstaff said. “So April 7 is one of the anniversary dates to this tragedy. So April 7, 2020 we’re going to remember both the Humboldt bus tragedy and the donor, Logan Boulet’s, effect. And that was to bring awareness to organ and tissue donation.”
The town’s proclamation declares the Olds community as being part of continuing the Logan Boulet Effect.
“This is an issue that continues its importance during times like those we’re going through currently,” said Wagstaff. “We can do with a little ray of hope. It’s an inspiration to uplift our community and our province and our country. And Olds can continue to inspire one another locally and across the country by registering and promoting registering donors and telling our families our intent.”
The proclamation states Green Shirt Day is also observed in Olds to honour, remember and recognize all the victims, survivors and families of the deadly crash.
Among them is another hockey player, Olds resident Graysen Cameron, who was injured in the crash. The right-winger rejoined the Humboldt Broncos for the 2019-20 season.
Town of Olds officials and the Canadian Transplant Association encourage people to wear green today in support of those in need of a life-saving organ transplant, those affected by the Humboldt Broncos tragedy, and to honour Boulet’s legacy of selfless giving.
In Canada, almost 90 per cent of Canadians say they support organ donation but only 23 per cent have actually registered their intent to donate, according to the Canadian Transplant Association.
Though donation rates have improved over the last 10 years, the association says there is more to be done as approximately 250 Canadians die annually waiting for an organ transplant.
To give consent to be an in Alberta you must be 18 or older. You can register on the Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Registry (AOTDR) or visit a Registry Agent office to register your consent.
