The Celebration of Life that Harwood Union students and faculty held this week for the five teenagers who died this month in a car crash was beautiful, loving and appropriate.
Planned and executed by Harwood Union juniors and their advisers, the October 24 event filled the gym and the auditorium as friends, family and community members gathered to celebrate Eli Brookens, Janie Chase Cozzi, Liam Hale, Mary Harris and Cyrus Zschau.
The composure and maturity of the students and staff who spoke were impressive and the tales they told were poignant and funny but most of all loving. The bagpipes and musical tributes were moving and Grace Potter’s appearance to sing her song “Stars” was beautiful.
Thanks are due to the students and staff who put this event together and put these local kids in context for those who didn’t know them well. Thanks for revealing their personalities, their senses of humor, their sassiness, their impishness, their naughtiness, their intelligence, their thoughtfulness, their athleticism and their love for their friends and families.
It’s no wonder they were all friends with each other. It sounds like they matched in terms of their attitudes and their approach to life.
Thanks, Harwood, for sharing what you’re made of. Listening to the teachers talk about their students and talk about middle-schoolers in particular – with their unique blend of child heading into teenager – is a big reveal. Teachers love their students, point blank.
They love them and respect them as individuals who are growing, learning and changing in front of their eyes over the course of the weeks and months that they instruct them.
Nowhere was that more evident than at Harwood Union High School this week.
While the pain of loss will linger forever in our community, it was beautiful to actually celebrate who these young people were and their impact on their friends, family, teachers and the rest of the community.
Thank you to the Harwood community for helping us to celebrate five amazing young people who left our lives far too early.
