Acadiana Comes Together For Crash Victims
Most of the time, when we think of Facebook, we think of a place for us to keep up with friends and family members through status updates, photos and more. When I got on Facebook today, in my stream I noticed a few of my friends had "liked" a page titled "We love you Colby Richard. I know you'll get through this." I clicked the page and found out that Colby was one of the students that was critically injured in the Port Barre school bus accident that made local headlines last week. According to the page, Colby was sitting in the very last seat of the bus that got plowed from behind by an 18-wheeler. He is in critical condition, with two broken legs and internal bleeding. He is currently at Lafayette General in ICU. Through the posts on his page that close to 900 people had already "liked" in just a short weekend span I noticed prayers were going out to Colby as well as a girl named Karen. So with some short investigative searching I instantly came across a page titled "We love you Karen Stoute. You are one brave babygirl." Karen was another victim of the school bus crash who is also in critical condition with severe brain trauma. She is an adorable five year old kindergartener and her page also had close to 900 "likes" already as well. Both pages had posts from people with heavy hearts--most who never met either of the young victims--sending prayers out to each of them and their families.
Sadly, in the midst of creating this post, I got the saddening news that 5 yr old Karen Stoute had passed away when I saw the page update it's status with "Rest in peace Karen. You will be sadly missed </3."
To me, this is what makes Acadiana a special place and also, this is what makes us different than any other place on earth. Almost 2000 complete strangers truly concerned and praying for these two children. Almost automatically, I chose to "like" both pages and along with the rest of the Hot Crew, decided to put this up for everyone else who came across this blog post to be able to show their love, support and respect for these two young individuals and their families. It only takes a second to click "like" to keep up with these two pages and I think that with everyone coming together we can touch lives by helping Karen Stoute's family and loved ones through this hard time and by sending support and prayers to Colby Richard to keep fighting toward recovery.
Below are snapshots of Colby and Karen that link to their individual Facebook Support Pages. Please take a couple seconds out of your day to show support for both of our Port Barre neighbors so that they, along with their families can get through these tough times with the support of our entire Acadiana community.
Rest in peace Karen, and our condolences to her family. Colby, keep fighting buddy ... we are behind you 100% !!
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