A high school friend of several parents of teens involved in a fatal crash near Keremeos early Sunday morning has setup a Gofundme campaign to help the families through this difficult time.
Lori Kascak, now lives in Flin Flon, MB, lost her daughter to suicide earlier this year and said she never wanted to welcome her friends into the club of parents that have lost children.
“It’s just awful. I know the initial shock of the first couple weeks. Everything is just a blur. You can’t eat or sleep all the while you have all these appointments to make and all these agencies to meet at this very terrible time of your life,” she said during a phone interview Monday. “I just wanted to do something so they didn’t have to worry about finances on top of everything else.”
Related: One dead and two in hospital after crash in Keremeos
Early Sunday morning around 2:30 a.m. a single vehicle crash occurred on Upper Bench Road. A 17-year-old boy, Logan Anderson-Fraser, was ejected from the vehicle and later died in hospital. A 15-year-old girl was also ejected from the vehicle and airlifted to a Vancouver hospital while a 17-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl suffered minor injures.
Kascak said she’s been friends with Logan’s mother and both parents of the girl who is in hospital for the last 25 years since they were in high school.
She moved away from Keremeos about 10 years ago but continues to own a house in the community and returns when she can.
Kascak said she’s spoken to her friend several times since his 15-year-old has been in Vancouver hospital. He travelled from Grand Prairie where he was working to Vancouver to be by her side in hospital. At this point, Kascak said her condition remains critical and is changing.
The girl suffered significant neck and back injuries among other injuries and has already had multiple surgeries.
“Although I’ve been living away from the valley for 10 years there’s something about Keremeos I have found. My friends, and not everybody is as fortunate in life, but a lot of us all stay in touch and we’re very close. It hits us all because we are so very close,” she said.
Kascak said she will split whatever money is raised through the gofundme campaign with both families. There is a goal of $10,000. By Tuesday morning just $200 had been raised.
“These families are really going to need this support in the days, weeks and months to come, so I hope this little community rallies together and stands behind them,” she said.
Anyone wishing to donate can do so by going to https://www.gofundme.com/our-keremeos-children.