It was a sunny day on Friday, April 6th when the Humboldt Broncos bus approached an intersection. The team was headed to their all-important game 5 of their playoff series when a semi-trailer truck collided with the bus. The bus was carrying 29 people and 14 of them were initially killed, including the driver. The other 15 people were injured, most of them seriously. Later two more would die, including the only female on the bus Dayna Brons who was an athletic therapist.
Team Background:
- The Humboldt Broncos are a hockey team based out of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada.They are located roughly 250 miles north of the US border at Montana and more than a 6-hour drive from the closest major cities of Calgary to the west and Winnipeg to the east.
- They are a very successful hockey team with two-time National Champions and 10-time SJHL (Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League) Championships.
From this tragedy has sprung some positive human stories including:
- Support has been given to the semi-trailer truck driver who is currently said to be visiting a doctor daily and there was a letter posted to him offering support on Facebook.
- Although being paralyzed from the waist down, a survivor of the crash, Ryan Straschnitizi has announced his plans to continue to play hockey in the Paralympic Games.
- There has been a spike in blood and organ donor registration from roughly 400 daily to more 7,000 in less than four days. This spike in organ donor registrations is because Logan Boulet, a victim who was kept on life support so his organs could be donated to six different people.
- The cars of those who have died in the accident are still parked outside of the arena covered in white roses.
- The Stanley Cup visited the players in the hospital.
- A GoFundMe was started and in 48 hours had collected $4 million and has now reached $14 million making it GoFundMe’s second largest campaign ever.
- “Leaving it out on the porch tonight. The Boys might need it….wherever they are”, was tweeted out in tribute two days after the hockey world was shaken. In the tribute tweeted by TSN broadcaster Brian Munz, he included that quote with a picture attached of a hockey stick resting against a door. The international response was huge supporting the hashtag #PutYourSticksOut.
I pray for the Humboldt victims and their families and friends. I encourage everyone to #PutYourSticksOut.