Thousands of dollars in donations have poured in to support the families of three Kelowna high school seniors killed in a tragic single-vehicle rollover on Wednesday.
Kelowna Secondary School’s Parent Advisory Council has raised more than $56,000 since its GoFundMe campaign was launched early Friday afternoon.
“The KSS PAC has created a GoFundMe for the three KSS families who lost their children in the tragic accident on May 26th,” the parent group wrote online.
“The school and our entire community as a whole is deeply saddened by these events. We would like to extend our deepest condolences to all of the individuals who have been impacted by this heartbreaking tragedy,” it said.
“We stand in solidarity with you in our collective grief. Funds raised will be divided equally among the three families impacted, to be used at their own discretion.”
Terra Le Claire, a family friend of Samara Haverko’s family, also launched a separate fundraising drive.
It has raised more than $16,000 in two days to support Haverko’s family.
“Samara was an exceptionally kind, smart, funny, selfless, and responsible young lady. She graduated a year early with honors and had plans to become a marine biologist. She worked two part-time jobs and was saving money for her education. Her parents couldn’t have asked for a better daughter,” Le Claire wrote.
“Samara was very close to all her family members and valued the time she spent with them and made sure they were first in everything. Secondly, came all her friendships which meant the world to her.”
The GoFundMe said Haverko is survived by her father Mike, mother Dawn, stepmother Leah, sister Paige and brother Hunter, grandfather Richard, and grandmother Renee.
Haverko was related to four staff members at the Kelowna Gospel Mission, a social service agency supporting those experiencing homelessness in the Central Okanagan.
Executive director Carmen Rempel released a video statement on Facebook Friday, expressing their grief and sorrow at the untimely loss.
“A few days ago, it felt like a hole was blown right through the centre of us here at Kelowna Gospel Mission when we heard word that one of the close family members of four of our staff was tragically killed in a car accident,” Rempel said in the video.
“Her name was Samara, and she was 17 and a promising, bright young person. There are no words for the loss. There’s pain in our community right now.”
The three Kelowna Senior Secondary students were in a Honda Civic sedan that RCMP say hit a utility pole in the city just after midnight Wednesday.
An 18-year-old woman who was driving and two passengers, an 18-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl, died at the scene.
The three were set to graduate within weeks and School District 23 Superintendent Kevin Kardaal says a specialized team of grief counsellors is at the school.
He says students and staff are being offered support as they deal with shock and grief.
Investigators are appealing for more witnesses and she said the RCMP’s victim services unit is also offering support to witnesses, friends and family of those who died.
The 2021 grad class at Kelowna Secondary School (KSS) has launched a campaign inspired by the tributes that poured in when 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team died in a bus crash in 2018.
Students are asking community members, many whom didn’t know the victims but have been deeply affected by the tragedy, join in and display KSS school colours or ribbons or any KSS gear or attire outside of their homes.
-With files from the Canadian Press and Global Okanagan’s Klaudia Van Emmerik
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