Pro athletes, celebrities show support

Drake wore a Humboldt jersey courtside for the Toronto Raptors’ opening playoff game at the ACC, Brooke Henderson dedicated her LPGA tourney win to Humboldt and a Canadian race car driver plastered the Broncos logo on his hood.

Don Cherry, Ron MacLean, Justin Trudeau, Paul Brandt, Hayley Wickenheiser, Jonathan Toews, Glen Gulutzan, Todd McLellan, Tom Jackson and Sheldon Kennedy raced out to stand bedside with the survivors. They embraced and consoled family members of those lost in the bus crash. For all Canadians.

Among other things, Nedjelski brought her knowhow, spending the last few days assisting a friend who owns a local business struggling to figure out how to mail out over 10,000 orders of Humboldt Strong T-shirts.

“Dubai, the U.K., Finland, all over the U.S., the stack for Ontario is probably 1,000 orders itself,” said Nedjelski who knows a thing or two about e-commerce as the owner of Bloom Kids.

“They have one machine printing T-shirts. They said, ‘we know how to make stuff – but not ship stuff.’”

So, the lads and ladies at Purolator asked how they could help out, suggesting they bring equipment to make shipping labels.

When they ran out of yellow ink, someone raced to Edmonton to get more.

WestJet and several local mines have sent employees.

Everyone is sending their love. Think about the last time Canadians rallied around something to this degree. You can’t.

These young lads have had an historic impact on all of us — the likes of which we, hopefully, shall never experience again. As odd as that sounds.

“The way people have reached out and offered in small or big ways is pretty unifying, pretty powerful,” said Eaton a former principal who served the city for 13 years. “One of the fundamental human values is coming out, the compassion and caring in so many ways.

“Right now my wife is at the local sewing shop, making quilts for all the families. They designed one with the Broncos logo and all the names and so many people responded to help they’re now making them for first responders. It’s just another example of how everybody wants to do something.”

With quilts, their arms, their wallets, their sticks, their jerseys and their words, the nation is putting its arms around Humboldt in a way the nation has never done before. So sad it took a tragedy to do so much good.