Local Girl Scouts honor Wisconsin accident victims
IMPERIAL — About 25 local Girl Scouts and their parent leaders joined in a show of solidarity Thursday night at Faith Academy to participate in a candlelight vigil for three Girl Scouts and one parent who were killed Saturday in Wisconsin.
Sara Jo Schneider, 32; her daughter Haylee Hickle, 10; Jayna Kelly, 9, and Autum Helgeson, 10, were killed while participating in a Girl Scouts highway cleanup project. A fifth girl, Madalyn, 10, was injured.
Responsible for the hitand-run was a 21-year-old man who reportedly was inhaling chemical vapors to get high. The man struck the group of five after his truck veered out of its lane. The man left the scene, but later turned himself into police about five hours after the crash.
Madalyn was hospitalized and has since been declared to be in stable condition.
After hearing news of the incident Sunday night, Troop 7036 co-leader Belia Garneau decided it was a necessity to organize and hold the local vigil.
“I was tremendously impacted, and it was very sad news for us because it could be any of our daughters,” Garneau said. “I just thought we had to do something to let these families know that we’re here for them.”
The vigil included speeches from Garneau and Faith Assembly Associate Pastor Cindy Bruce, a minute of silence and group singing of the song “Day Is Done.”
Following the vigil, Girl Scouts were provided with condolence cards to decorate, which will be mailed to the affected families.
“They might not be ready for all this right now, but hopefully eventually they will. They’re suffering a huge loss,” Garneau said. “I just couldn’t picture myself not doing something about it.”
On Wednesday night, a rehearsal session for the vigil was held. Following the rehearsal, Garneau and her Girl Scouts sat down and had a discussion about death and how they each were feeling about the tragedy.
“You would be surprised how much they understand and how empowering this experience was for them,” said Garneau of her troop of fourth-graders. “They all expressed something, but in the end, they said, ‘Belia, but we’re not going to stop doing what we’re doing, right?’ I told them, ‘No, we’re not going to stop.’”
Garneau said she was proud of the perseverance her girls showed, as the Girls Scouts organization is meant to raise stronger leaders who are willing to take the risk to move forward and do things for the community.
“That’s the gas we need every day,” Garneau said. “Can you imagine if we had more girls like that? Not just girls, but kids in general, with that attitude.
Wouldn’t it be awesome? We just have to teach the girls how to try to deal with the bad things and learn from them and enjoy and really embrace the good things that they encounter.”