Kudos to students in an École Deer Meadow School Grade 7 class for doing their part to support local athlete Graysen Cameron, who was injured in the April 6 bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos bus and a semi-trailer.
In the wake of that collision, support for the accident victims and the families of those who did not survive erupted across the country, including here in Olds.
Lori Clarke, who teaches Grade 7 literacy, says the discussion began because she teaches the same grade that Robert McBeath is in. Robert is Ryan McBeath's brother. Ryan passed away March 13 in a two-vehicle collision near Torrington. Graysen and Ryan were friends and fellow hockey and lacrosse players.
Clarke says because her class knew Robert, "it was impacting the students because they're all of that age."
Clarke and the students debated what they could do to show support. In the end, they chose to send a letter that Clarke composed on their behalf, and a photo of each student giving a "thumbs-up."
Also in that package was a piece of paper which said, “Here is a small imprint of ourselves in return for the large imprint you have made on our lives.” Around that saying were green thumbprints made by the students.
"They had said, 'well, let's make him a card or write him a letter or something that we can send to him, just so that they know (how we feel),'" Clarke says.
She says that gesture fit in perfectly with what the school tries to teach and reinforce.
"One of the concepts at Deer Meadow that we focus on is resiliency," Clarke says. "So that's where I was bringing in that concept with the kids and talking about resiliency. 'It's not how many times you fall, it's how many times you get up'; conversations like that."
She's right, and that's an excellent lesson for kids to learn.
