‘Hopefully it brings some comfort’: Community steps up in wake of Walkerton tragedy

Hundreds of people are leaving out bats, sneakers and candles on their front steps, along with starting a fundraising campaign to help the families.

For the past three nights, Lynn Bernard has a vase of flowers and a pair of sneakers out on her front porch. It’s a small token to show the friends and families of the five victims of Friday’s fatal car crash that their community cares.

“It’s all we can do right now, and hopefully it brings some comfort in the days and the weeks to come, especially to those that are directly affected by this tragedy,” said Bernard.

Bernard isn’t alone. Hundreds of people across Walkerton, Bruce County and across the country, have been leaving a light on, putting sneakers and maybe a bat out on their steps. These gestures are for the four members of a Walkerton girls softball team and their coach, that were killed last Friday in a car crash near London. They were heading home to Walkerton after capturing second place at school softball tournament.

The local mayor, Chris Peabody remembers a similar tragedy of students dying in a car crash during his first teaching job, before moving to teach in Walkerton.

“I remember as a young teacher the impact, even two years after was quite significant, the emotional impact. I’ve seen 40 years ago how profound the loss of young people is on both a school and a community. It can be long lasting,” said Peabody.

Walkerton and area have rallied behind the students, and families affected by this tragedy. A fundraising campaign to help the families with the unexpected funeral expenses, and “unforeseen costs that will cause even more burden on these families,” has already raised over $110,000 in just two days.

Walkerton businesswoman, Cassandra Cassidy has launched a separate fundraiser, to fund academic/athletic scholarships, called “The Riverhawks Memorial Scholarship” in honour of the four students, Olivia Rourke, Kaydance Ford, Danica Baker, Rowan McLeod and their coach, Matt Eckert.

“In a small community, everybody rallies around everybody, and tries to do everything that they can to make the situation better. There’s no way you can make the situation better, but what you can do, is spread that kindness to others,” said Cassidy.

That’s what Tim Lowe was thinking, when he tossed out the idea of putting sneakers on people’s front steps last Saturday to support the families of the victims.

“It reminded me a lot of the Humboldt Broncos tragedy. So, I thought, what could we do?” said Lowe.

“Hopefully it just brings some comfort, like, to everyone, to every one of us. I think right now, we have to kind of look after each other,” said Bernard, who will keep putting out sneakers each night, until the five victims are ultimately laid to rest.

The family of Olivia Rourke, one of the victims of the collision issued the following statement on Tuesday evening: