The Catholic New World - Cover Story - Healing Through Tragedy



		Hours before the accident, Nativity BVM sudents gathered for a Big Shoulders scholarship celebration. Catholic New World / Sandy Bertog

n the midst of a tragedy, like the Feb. 15 van crash that shattered Nativity BVM Parish and School, it’s hard to look through the anguish toward healing. Now, nearly three weeks later, the healing is impossible to overlook.

The school and parish family at Nativity BVM rose up to help each other after a van accident that injured nine students, their coach and his daughter while enroute to a basketball game. Only two students remain hospitalized. Doctors expect to release another this week.

School principal Donna Christian—at Nativity BVM less than two years—is proud of the way members of the school and parish family pulled together.

“The school is multi-cultural and we worked very hard at building our family together when I first came,” she said. “I talked the talk but wondered if the students, parents, faculty and community were ‘walking’ with me. After this experience, I am proud to say they are. We are the family of Nativity BVM. No one can take that away from us. We are together even more so now.”
The first sign of solidarity—and trust—came when Deb King phoned the parents of injured students. King, the school secretary, asked parents to stay home until she called them with the name of the hospital where their child had been taken.

“The parents stayed by the phone,” said Michael Bland, clinical and pastoral counselor for the Archdiocese Office of Assistance Ministry, who quickly became part of the healing process. “They didn’t come to the school. It was a reflection of their trust.”

In the next few days, King fielded hundreds of phone calls from the news media and others. She directed offers of support and help to the right sources.

“King just did [the job],” said Bland.”

Bland’s responsibility was providing on-site assistance to the parish if needed. “I came to offer support emotionally and objectively,” he added. “But all the family members went into action, somehow knowing what each had to do. Watching them made me see the church is alive and well.”

Christian immediately went to the accident scene and comforted the injured until ambulances arrived.

“One student was worried about his gym shoes in the van,” said Bland. “Christian went inside the van and got them for him. She then spent from 4 p.m. until 2 a.m. going to three different hospitals visiting each of those injured.”

Cardinal George also visited the injured in the hospital.

Then the principal and some members of the parish family spent what was left of the night sleeping on the floor of the school library. At 6:45 a.m. Christian held a faculty meeting. Bland said, “She updated them and asked how to address the needs of the children who hadn’t been injured but were feeling the emotional trauma of the accident.”

A faculty member suggested the children make get-well cards for the injured. The cards, combined with some art therapy, helped the students express their feelings, said Bland. They later were handed one-by-one to Bishop John Gorman during a parish prayer service for the hospitalized students.

Christian updated the students, something that has become a habit. Faculty and counselors talked with the students. Some students hugged each other. Many cried.

The healing process had begun.

Christian was grateful to the many parents who just showed up to help without being called.

“Many came the night of the accident and asked what they could do to help,” she said. “The next morning parents formed almost a human wall around the school protecting the students from the several dozen news media people, equipment and trucks that stationed themselves there. They got the children safely into school.”

School faculty also responded, she said. “They are a faculty of caregivers,” she said. “They did whatever was asked of them.”

Through it all, Christian continues to be amazed by the outpouring of support the school and parish received.

“Our parishioners, non-Catholic schools in the neighborhood, other Catholic schools far beyond our boundaries are sending the children cards and letters and offering Masses for the injured. Our bulletin boards are full of messages of love and respect.”

Maria High School and St. Rita High School offered to send counselors if needed. Others offered help in whatever way they could.

“One family delivered helium balloons for each of the injured children, said Christian.” “They didn’t even know us but they cared. It’s a constant learning experience.”

The basketball team Nativity BVM was to play that day—St. Richard—sent flowers for the injured. A local pizza restaurant sent pizzas the evening of the accident. Just hours before the accident Nativity BVM had hosted the Immigration Scholarship Celebration sponsored by Big Shoulders. [The event marks the giving of scholarship money for children who have been in the United States less than three years.] The next day, the Big Shoulders organization bought lunch for students in grades 6-8 so they could be together and share their feelings.

“The outreach has been unbelievable,” said Christian.

“You see it on TV but never think it’ll happen to you. But when it does, the spirit and compassion of others makes you even stronger.”

Christian said something unexpected came out of the adversity: “A woman who had never heard of our school came to register her children here after she learned about us following the accident,” she said.

“She told us she wanted her children to be at a school that had so much praise and glory, particularly during these negative circumstances.”